Professor Aviad HaKohen, who heads the Shaare Mishpat Academic Center and Prof. Michal Tamir, a lecturer at the center, on Thursday 15 Tammuz filed a petition with the High Court of Justice in the hope of blocking the Shas party from taking control of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate of Israel batei din. The control over the batei din is being moved to the Ministry of Religious Services, which is headed by Minister (Shas) David Azoulai.
The professors explain that they have learned the cabinet in its upcoming meeting on Sunday, 18 Tammuz plans to actualize coalition agreements dealing with control of the nation’s rabbinical courts. That means turning over control of the Religious Services Ministry. The batei din are currently controlled by the Ministry of Justice, which is headed by Justice Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Ayelet Shaked. Among the opponents to the transfer of authority is the Emunah Women’s Organization, claiming such a move would negatively impact women seeking the services of the nation’s batei din.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
“Waaaaaa! We lost the election so we need the courts to overturn what the elected officeholders do.”
Can a court that is under the control of, and subordinate, to a political official ever be considered a legitimate court. This is the same issue in the United States witgh the complaints that the Securities and Exchange Commission is using its own courts rather than the real courts, and as these “courts” consist of employees of the SEC, rather than independent judges as is required in constitutional courts, the SEC, not surprisingly, almost always wins the cases they bring.
It should be noted that the Israelis are arguing over which political flunkies control the courts – not over whether the courts should be independent or consist of qualifed judges or even if the courts should rule justly and in accordance with law.