Retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy was niftar on Tuesday 9 Adar II 5774 at the age of 72. The family reports that “while he was not well, the event was sudden an unexpected”.

The niftar was born in Iraq in 1941 and immigrated to Israel with his family when he was 10. He was certified as an attorney in 1971, he began his own law practice. He was appointed as a military judge less than a decade later and then appointed to the Kfar Saba Magistrate Court in 1979. From there he moved to the Tel Aviv District Court and in 2000, he was appointed to the Supreme Court. He retired in 2011.

Levy was among the justices ruling in the case of Yigal Amir, who was convicted of the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. He was a voice opposing the 2005 Disengagement Plan, and after retiring he was appointed to head the state committee probing the legality of yishuvim throughout Yehuda and Shomron. That committee was dubbed the Levy Committee. His ruling shocked the core of the nation’s left-wing neshama, ruling the yishuvim are not a violation of international law despite much propaganda to the contrary, he called on the government to legalize all so-called outposts. This ruling was too harsh for the ruling powers that be and the decision was ignored to this very day.

An Orthodox Jew, the late justice was praised by many when the news of his petira was publicized, especially among the religious and right-wing that rarely feel they have representation in the nation’s highest court. The working people also felt that Levy never lost touch of his roots, and “where he came from”, ruling with sensitivity towards the regular person, not a member of the High Court elitist.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)