Israel

Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday overturned a contentious law that limited the court’s oversight of the country’s government and ministers, according to several news agencies. A narrow majority of eight of 15 Supreme Court justices voted to overrule the law. They believe it will “do serious and unprecedented damage to the fundamental characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state,” dpa writes. The now-overruled law was part of the judicial reform passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s staunchly conservative government in July 2023. The government pushed the new measures through despite strong opposition in the Knesset. The contentious judicial reform prompted hundreds of thousands of Israelis to take to the streets in protest during 2023. The law, now overruled by the country’s highest court, deprived the Supreme Court of one of several tools it has to change government decisions. This could happen if judges thought new laws were “unreasonable” or unconstitutional. /ritzau/