Israel passes contested curbs on some Supreme Court powers

Israel's parliament on Monday ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing the country for months.

The amendment to a law enabling the Supreme Court to void some government decisions if it deemed them "unreasonable" passed by a 64-to-0 vote after opposition lawmakers abandoned the session in protest, some of them shouting: "For shame!"

More deadlock loomed, however. Within minutes of the vote, a political watchdog group and the centrist opposition leader said they would appeal against the law at the Supreme Court.

Hoping to encourage a stopgap deal between the religious-nationalist coalition government and opposition parties, the Histadrut labour union threatened to declare a general strike if what it called "unilateral" measures were pursued.

Still, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, an architect of the reforms package cast by Netanyahu as needed to create more balance among branches of government, sounded undeterred.

"We took the first step in the historic, important process of fixing the justice system and restoring powers that were taken from the government and the Knesset (parliament)," he said in a speech.

Critics worry that the reforms aim to curb judicial independence.