A SHATIL-led forum of more than 30 civil society organizations is calling for the repeal of Israel's anti-democratic Economic Arrangements Law.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the law, which allows the government to pass economic measures in one fell swoop without proper discussion by the Knesset, is not suitable to a democratic legislative process. The Attorney General also has criticized the law. The Forum of Organizations to Abolish the Arrangements Law claims the Finance Ministry uses the law to promote its conservative agenda.

The movement to repeal the law is growing and has the backing of the Knesset's social lobby and the Labor Party. Passed in 1985 as a one-time emergency measure, the law has since ballooned in size and been attached annually to the budget law. It has the power to limit and even overturn legislative decisions. It can and has been used to push through cruel cuts in social benefits that fly in the face of Knesset wishes.  The law is very roughly comparable to catch-all continuing resolutions passed by the U.S. Congress when a proper federal budget is not passed, placing key appropriations decisions in the hands of a small number of powerful legislators and bureaucrats.

"Abolish the Arrangements Law Now. 2008 - Continuing the Struggle” from the webpage of the new Forum to Abolish the Arrangements Law

The Forum is asking the government to take the hundreds of clauses in the Arrangements Law through the normal democratic legislative process.

Avi Dabush, SHATIL coordinator of the Forum noted: "Everyone agrees the Arrangements Law is bad, but we've always concentrated on trying to cut socially harmful clauses. Finally, there is an initiative that is saying, enough! This law has to go."

The Forum is circulating a petition demanding the law's repeal on its newly launched web site (in Hebrew) that also includes links to detailed information about the 2008 budget, photos of Forum demonstrations, an explication of arguments against the law and a list of weekly public protests.