Netanyahu drops key part of Israel judicial overhaul plans

Thousands of people protested against the judicial overhaul on Saturday, as they have done every week since January

After months of protests, Israel's prime minister has made a surprise announcement that he is dropping one of the most contentious parts of his judicial overhaul plans.

However, Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks to The Wall Street Journal have failed to appease leaders of the demonstrations and have angered his coalition partners.

In an interview, Mr Netanyahu told the US newspaper he was no longer seeking to give parliament the authority to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

"The idea of an override clause, where the parliament, the Knesset, can override the decisions of the Supreme Court with a simple majority... I threw that out," he said.

Leaders of the demonstrations which have caused upheaval in the country since early this year said the proposed changes did not go far enough and pledged to continue their rallies.

One protester, Tamar Krongrad, told the BBC that Mr Netanyahu was "throwing sand in the eyes of the audience" after being shunned by Western leaders over the judicial plans.

"We are fighting for the soul of our country and one interview with one person doesn't make everything else go away," she added.

Meanwhile, far-right ultranationalist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power party, accused Mr Netanyahu of "surrendering" to civil unrest, saying it was "a victory for violence and a loss for Israel".

"We were elected to bring governance and change. Reform is a cornerstone of that promise," he tweeted.

An ultra-Orthodox minister, Meir Porush, told a newspaper that the original changes to bolster parliament were a condition for his United Torah Judaism party joining the governing coalition. "Any other agreement is not acceptable to us," he said.

Mr Netanyahu said in the filmed interview that he was "attentive to the public pulse and to what I think will pass muster".

He added that he would still push ahead with another controversial idea to give the government more control over judicial appointments, saying that an existing proposal would be modified.

"It's not going to be the current structure, but it's not going to be the original structure," he said, without giving more information.

The government - the most right-wing in Israeli history - unveiled its vision to make dramatic changes to the Israeli court system not long after it was sworn in in December.

It has long been an argument of the Israeli right that the Supreme Court has been increasingly intruding into politics, making decisions in areas where it should have no authority.

Meanwhile, the ultra-Orthodox minority has been angered over the court's decisions in the past.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders wanted to pass the so-called "override clause" to prevent the court from striking down legislation it seeks giving Jewish seminary students a blanket exemption from compulsory military service.

The coalition says it is making reforms to restore the correct checks and balances between branches of government, where parliament as the elected body has greater sway.

However, demonstrators vehemently reject the overhaul, saying it will destroy the independence of the judiciary and threaten democracy. They have organised huge protests, opening up damaging splits between the government's supporters and detractors.

In March, after weeks of mass rallies and civil disruption which rattled the financial markets, Mr Netanyahu paused the planned changes to try to reach a consensus in negotiations with the opposition, overseen by the Israeli president. So far, these have not produced a result.

Prof Suzie Navot, an expert in constitutional law who has been representing the largest opposition party, Yesh Atid, in the talks at the president's office, found no reason for encouragement in the prime minister's latest remarks.

"This is a coup d'etat in the Polish way, which is done a little at a time," she wrote on Twitter, referring to a series of judicial reforms in Poland in recent years that the European Union said undermined judicial independence.

At the moment, the Israeli government is pushing ahead with an element of the changes relating to what has been termed "the reasonable clause", advancing a bill that would prevent the court system from using a test of "reasonableness" when ruling against decisions and appointments made by all elected officials.

There have been reports in the Israeli media that ministers are working on a new version of this.

"It's not the reasonableness clause, it's dictatorship," tweeted protest spokesperson Roee Neumann in response. "It's a duty to resist."

While speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Netanyahu also repeated that while Israel was helping Ukraine with civilian defences and an alert system, it could not supply military systems like the Iron Dome.

The air defence system has been successfully used in recent years to intercept thousands of Palestinian rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Mr Netanyahu said there was a danger that if the technology was shared, it could fall into the hands of the country's enemies.

"We're concerned... that systems that we would give to Ukraine would fall into Iranian hands and could be reverse engineered - and we would find ourselves facing Israeli systems used against Israel."