Knesset member Efrat Rayten, chair of the Democrats faction, launched her primary campaign on Tuesday morning and made clear that her goal in the next government is the Justice Ministry. Her campaign video echoes Ayelet Shaked’s 2019 “Perfume of Fascism” clip, which presented Shaked, then justice minister, as the only figure able to stand up to the High Court of Justice.
Rayten warned that Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Constitution Committee chair Simcha Rothman are trying to use their final moments in power to create “total chaos” in the system and advance “regime change” in Israel. She said, “Together with my partners I am fighting them on every front and in every way,” and promised that if her side wins the election, “we will cancel all the acts of destruction they carried out here over the last four years” and remove Levin’s “dangerous reform.”
A lawyer by profession, Rayten served on the committee for selecting judges in the previous Knesset. She said the fight over the future of the legal system and the rule of law will be at the center of her campaign, and she is aligning herself with Democrats leader Yair Golan, who has said his party will demand the Justice Ministry if it joins a government.
Rayten said her program was developed over the past year with senior legal experts and public figures from academia and practice. It calls for a state commission of inquiry into October 7, constitutional protection for equality and freedom of speech, a Basic Law on legislation and explicit authority for the High Court to strike down laws, a two-term limit of eight years for a prime minister plus a ban on serving while under indictment, tougher punishment for public corruption and ethics rules for ministers, and a new appeals court between district court and the Supreme Court, along with incentives for mediation and arbitration to ease court congestion. Rayten said, “After four years of destruction and ruin, it is time to strengthen the systems of government and law.”
