BREAKING NEWS

Knesset Ctee gets heated over oversight of prosecution

The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Wednesday held a heated debate over an ongoing fight over how much the state should oversee and criticize the state's prosecutorial apparatus.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, her predecessor Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union), Committee Chairman Nissan Slomiansky and many other attendees strongly supported the new oversight office, run by former Judge Hila Gerstl, and slammed the prosecutors' union for striking and boycotting Gerstl or expressed hope that the strike was over now that the prosecutors had accepted a mediation plan offered by Shaked.
Hitting back just as hard was the prosecutor's union, with one prosecutor being throw out of the hearing, and MK Shelly Yacimovich (Zionist Union), who said the oversight body was designed to weaken and politicize the prosecution so it could not go after public corruption.
Shaked's plan included a pause in the strike for two months during which Gerstl's office will also restrict its criticism to the entire prosecution as opposed to singling out individual prosecutors, while mediator Eliezer Goldberg, respected by all sides for serving in top legal positions, tries to seal a permanent deal.