Israeli doctors, most of whom are unionized, plan to strike for several hours this week to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms, offering patients only emergency services across the nation.
The strike, which may violate the Hippocratic oath, comes as Israeli elites try desperately to shield the powerful left-wing judiciary from reforms that would bring its powers into line with those of courts in other democracies.
Netanyahu was elected last year with a coalition of right-wing parties that had a large majority and a mandate for judicial reform. For decades, since then-Chief Justice Aharon Barak declared a “constitutional revolution,” unilaterally expanding the powers of the judiciary, Israeli voters have watched as the courts struck down the laws and policies of the generally conservative legislature and quashed the actions of the executive branch.
The new government proposed a set of reforms earlier this year that largely paralleled existing practice in the U.S. and other democracies. After mass protests in the spring, and pressure from the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government agreed to talks with the opposition, which failed to achieve a result. Netanyahu has since moved forward with the reforms, one by one, starting with ending the courts’ “reasonableness” doctrine.
Until this standard, courts have imposed their own understanding of what is “reasonable” policy, overriding the will of the elected representatives and government. (Even Barak has since admitted this reform is warranted.)
However, Israel’s opposition has decided to take to the streets to shut down the country. Elite military reservists have threatened to desert, and now the doctors’ union is planning to strike.
The Times of Israel notes:
Staff at public hospitals and clinics plan to go on strike this week in protest of the government’s judicial overhaul, the head of the Israeli Medical Association, Prof. Zion Hagay, said on Monday.
Hagay told Channel 12 that the public health union, which represents about 95 percent of physicians in Israel, is prepared to work in “emergency mode” for a few hours this week.
Meanwhile, Israel’s government is continuing to function in other areas. Israel told Morocco it recognizes the sovereignty of the Moroccan government in Western Sahara, and President Isaac Herzog is arriving in the U.S.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
