Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has announced she will “bury” the bill that intends to circumvent the authority of the nation’s High Court of Justice. Livni, who chairs the Ministerial Law Committee, explains in her view, if the bill passes it would destroy Israel’s judicial system and the nation’s democratic system.
Fed up with the ultra-liberal High Court regularly overruling Knesset, after the court ruled to eliminate the Infiltrators’ Law, the law dealing with illegal aliens, lawmakers pushed the initiative for this legislation intended to neutralize the High Court. The law that was invalidated by the High Court addressed efforts to prevent illegals from overrunning neighborhoods such as the case with illegals from Africa have overrun areas of S. Tel Aviv.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
1. The Kenesset can always overrule the Supreme Court by passing a “Basic law”, which requires 61 votes.
2. As for saying such a law threatens “democracy” it should be noted that in Great Britain, whose government is the model for Israel’s (i.e. strong parliament with a prime minister, weak head of state), any decision by the British courts can be overturned by a statute.
3. THe Israeli judiciary largely appoints its own sucessors, meaning that the courts reflect the “elite” of the 1950s (secular, Asheknazi, upper class) to the detriment of all other groups. The underrepresentation of religious (and especially hareidim), Jews from Africa and Asia, and more recent immigrant populations would in a country such as the United States be considered highly undemocratic and discriminatory.
Re comment no. 1: Your paragraph 2 is substantially wrong. Britain’s parliament is elected by single-representative constituencies, i.e., by districts like US congressional districts. Israel’s knesset is elected by voters nationwide who vote for a party, which puts up a list of candidates, who get into the knesset based on the portion of votes that the party draws. That is why Israel has more than 20 parties, and Britain has 2 major parties and one minor party. Israel’s system is more like Italy’s, not Britain’s.
Also relating to paragraph 3, it is interesting that the former head of the Israeli Supreme Court was Menachem Elon, who was a charedi former Chevron yeshiva bochur. Unfortunately, there are not too many like him.
The override is definitely the right way to go. In the current system, the Left can maintain its hegemony by having the appointed judges legislate according to their point of view. It’s only fair that the majority should have relief from this tyranny.
The US sorely needs such a law because there is virtually no majority rule anymore. Toeiva rights are being promulgated by activist judges against the will of state majorities. Dayanay sedom rule the day and the people have no recourse.
Livni is a Leftist and she will try to maintain Leftist domination any way she can. It’s only fair that a super majority should be able to override a doctrinaire appointee’s view.