Netanyahu dismisses critique over judicial reform: ‘We received a clear mandate’

“We are not frightened by the one-sided media campaign against us, and we do not flinch in the face of the incitement that is raging against us.”

By TPS

In what sounded like a response to criticisms leveled against him and his coalition government made by opposition party leader Benny Gantz earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday evening that the new judicial reforms proposed last week by Justice Minister Yariv Levin are not an attack on Israel’s democracy, as the opposition has been saying.

Gantz had suggested that the people who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud Party – which has 32 seats in the Knesset, half of the coalition’s total of 64 – do not support the proposed limitations to the Israel Supreme Court’s authority to nullify laws passed by the Knesset, among other things.

“We received a clear mandate from the public,” he said, “to carry out what we promised in the elections and we will do so. This is the essence of democracy – it is the realization of the voter’s will.”

“We are not frightened by the one-sided media campaign against us,” added Netanyahu, “and we do not flinch in the face of the incitement that is raging against us.”

Benjamin NetanyahuBenny GantzBezalel SmotrichIsrael Judicial SystemIsraeli politicsYair LapidYariv Levin