Negotiations between majority and opposition parties on Israel's ultra-controversial justice reform project continued Wednesday (March 29th), after a first meeting "in a positive spirit" the day before, Israeli President Isaac Herzog's office said. "After about an hour and a half, the meeting, which took place in a positive spirit, has ended," the president's office said in a statement late Tuesday. "Tomorrow, President Isaac Herzog will continue the series of meetings," he added.

This first "dialogue meeting" took place at Isaac Herzog's residence in Jerusalem between "the working teams representing the ruling coalition," as well as the opposition Yesh Atid and National Unity Party parties, according to the statement. Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, the respective leaders of these two centrist parties, had announced on Monday that they were ready to dialogue with the majority, under the aegis of Isaac Herzog.

Shortly before, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had "decided on a pause" in the consideration of the controversial justice reform project that divides the country, in order to give "a chance to a real dialogue" with a view to the adoption of a more consensual text during the summer parliamentary session that begins on April 30.

"We thank the President for opening his house to the negotiation process for the benefit of the citizens of Israel. We joined him on behalf of a broad audience who understood how fragile and vulnerable our democracy is," the Yesh Atid party said on Twitter.

Warning

US President Joe Biden, whose government had welcomed the "pause" announced by Benjamin Netanyahu, again pleaded Tuesday night for an abandonment of the project. "They can't continue on this path and I think I've made myself understood," Trump said on the sidelines of a visit to North Carolina. "I hope they give it up," he said later of the bill once back in Washington. He added that he had no plans to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House "in the short term."

Led by one of Israel's most right-wing governments, the justice reform project has given rise to one of the largest popular mobilization movements in the country.

While they accepted the mediation of Isaac Herzog, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz also warned the government against any deception. Referring to the draft law on the composition of the commission responsible for selecting judges, one of the most contested aspects of the reform, their two parties warned in a joint statement that they would leave the negotiating table "immediately" if this text "is put on the programme of Parliament".

Protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

For the government, the reform aims to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, to the benefit of Parliament. Critics, on the contrary, believe that the reform risks leading to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.

Several members of the ruling coalition assure that the reform will be voted eventually. For Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Institute for Democracy, a think tank, "this is a ceasefire perhaps to regroup, reorganize and then, potentially, charge forward."

One of the collectives behind the protests against the reform announced the continuation of the protest "as long as the judicial coup d'état is not completely stopped". Protests took place Tuesday night in Tel Aviv and outside Isaac Herzog's residence in Jerusalem.

With AFP

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