Israel's Knesset Weakened Basic Laws by Expedited Legislation
Israel's outgoing 25th Knesset, which concluded its term in July ahead of elections, significantly increased the pace of passing and amending basic laws, which serve as the foundation for the country's unwritten constitution. While most democracies require special majorities or lengthy procedures to alter their constitutions, Israel allows for amendments to basic laws with a simple majority in the Knesset, similar to regular legislation. The 25th Knesset saw an unprecedented 80 proposals for new or amended basic laws, a sharp increase from the approximately 30 proposals per decade in previous parliaments. Several of these proposals were passed through all legislative stages within weeks.
According to a report by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), the 25th Knesset passed five basic law amendments within two weeks to a month each during its first year. These included measures that canceled the "reasonableness standard" for judicial review, expanded the "Norwegian Law" allowing ministers to resign from the Knesset and retain their seats, and altered rules regarding ministerial appointments and the prime minister's incapacitation. Two of these were private member's bills that bypassed the standard 45-day waiting period for public and government review.
These rapid legislative changes are linked to the government's proposed judicial overhaul, which aimed to strengthen executive power and weaken the judiciary. The IDI noted that the high volume of basic law proposals, with 51 out of 263 proposed bills classified as potentially harmful to democratic institutions, indicates a "continuous erosion of the normative status of basic laws" and a "systematic attempt by the coalition to use the constitutional mechanism to create fundamental structural and regime changes."
While the Supreme Court has historically been cautious about overturning basic laws, it unanimously voided the cancellation of the reasonableness standard in January 2024, the first time it had ever struck down an amendment to a basic law. However, other amendments, including a new basic law on Torah study passed just before the Knesset dissolved, remain in effect. The IDI warns that using basic laws to resolve specific political disputes "risks emptying the status of basic laws of content."
