Transportation Minister Miri Regev told the Likud publication Melukadim on Sunday that immediately after the Passover break, the government would continue to move forward with the judicial reforms.
"As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, the reform was only put on [temporary] hold and there is a [known] date for the next session - immediately after Independence Day we are continuing with the legislation," she said.
She even claimed that "Netanyahu paused [legislation] to allow for negotiation, but if there will be none, we will bring it [back up] for reconfirmation."
"Throughout this whole process, we called for dialogue and there was no response," said Regev. "Now, the prime minister has made a leadership decision for the unity of the people and suspended legislation until the next session."
"A Likud delegation has already been appointed to negotiate with the other side," she said. "The negotiation team will see if there is a willingness for reasonable agreements that will meet the voters' expectations."
The goal is to bring balance
In the interview with Meludakim, Regev added: "The prime minister repeated throughout the process that the reform is a commitment to bring balance between the three [branches of government]. I expressed my position clearly in favor of continuing legislation...In my opinion, [Netanyahu] should have continued at least with the Judicial Selection Committee bill and brought it to a vote for a second and third reading before the end of the session."
"Contrary to everything that is being said about [the judicial reform] on the propaganda channels, the reform is designed to strengthen the public's trust in the judicial system."
What led to approving the 'softened' version?
Regev explained that "the Rothman and Levin outline...was formed after long discussions with The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. It was not easy...I thought that we should go with the initial outline, but in the end a vote was held and we decided to go with a softened outline that includes two important [points] for us. One is the cancellation of the judges' veto and the other is the elimination of derived rights, something that will lead to diversity and [wider] representation in the judicial system over time."
Regev concluded by saying that it was regrettable that the reform was not brought up during the elections, as such a move would have prevented "false and delegitimize propaganda...in the media."