Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz has been a friend and adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for decades. But when it comes to Netanyahu’s plan to significantly weaken the Israeli Supreme Court, Dershowitz has a sharp warning for the prime minister. The move would be a “terrible mistake” and Netanyahu is “wrong” to push it through, Dershowitz tells hosts Amir Tibon and Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz Weekly.

Dershowitz warns that an ‘override clause’ giving the government the power to cancel Supreme Court decisions on human rights would be extremely harmful to Israel, and that giving politicians ultimate control over judicial appointments is just as bad, even if some Israelis point to the United States as a source of inspiration (“why copy from us something that’s been a disaster over here?”).

Later on the podcast, starting at time code 18:25, we hear from Dr. Shikma Bressler – a physicist and one of the leaders of the protest movement against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul. Bressler, who was also involved in the demonstrations that brought down Netanyahu’s previous government, explains why this time, just protesting in the streets won’t be enough. “We have to be a lot more creative, and much more aggressive,” she says.

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