Israeli President Herzog calls for national unity, warns against renewing divisive judicial reform

Over the past three years, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has become known as a moderating force in the nation’s sharply divided society.

On Tuesday, while speaking at the Israel Bar Association, Herzog advocated for national unity and cautioned the Netanyahu-led coalition government against going forward with its controversial judicial reform plan.

“Don’t you dare,” Herzog warned. “Let us recover and heal after the terrible break. We must not make fateful decisions regarding the country’s core values without a broad consensus, and an in-depth and shared dialogue.”

Herzog’s warning comes after Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin recently called for renewing discussions around the judicial reform issue, which were put on hold following the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and massacre of 1,200 Israelis.

“The time has come for us to decide whether to pursue this with all of our strength,” Levin stated in August, according to the KAN news outlet.

“It’s time to make the necessary change in the judicial system,” added the justice minister, who has been the driving force behind the efforts to overhaul Israel's justice system.

Herzog highlighted that the contentious judicial reform deepened divisions among Israeli citizens and within the government, leaving Israel vulnerable against its enemies.

“I hear the voices and initiatives of those who seek to send us back months, to the same arena where it all began, I recognize the dangerous fumes in the air and I warn against them here and honestly ask: Is this what Israeli society needs now?” Herzog said.

“Is this what thousands of bereaved families need? This is what tens of thousands of families are asking for who don’t sleep at night out of worry for their loved ones at the front, because they are evacuated, or God forbid because their loved ones are kidnapped and held by brutal murderers? Is this what the wounded in body and soul are shouting to us? I say clearly – No!”

In January, the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem voted to strike down the Reasonableness Law in an 8:7 vote. Proponents of the judicial reform argue the proposed changes will strengthen Israeli democracy, while opponents say the reforms will undermine it.

In September, just one month before the Oct. 7 terror attack, Herzog called for national dialogue and compromise concerning the judicial overhaul. On Tuesday, the president repeated this call to work together to resolve the issues and repair Israel’s fractured political landscape.

“It won’t help us if everyone climbs barricades on every issue,” Herzog argued.  “Listen for a moment to other parts of the nation, to your sisters and brothers, to whole communities in Israel that think a little differently,” the president urged.

Herzog recently addressed thousands of mourners who attended the funeral of the American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem.

Regarding the remaining hostages in Israel, the president urged Israeli leaders to put politics aside and embrace “an urgent and immediate task to act to the best of their ability to save those who can still be saved, and to return all our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters to their homes in peace."

"This is a supreme moral, Jewish and humanitarian imperative of the State of Israel to its citizens,” the president added.