Constitutional Change Coming to Israel? (at last)
a bill before the Knesset (parliament) now that would turn Israel into
a democracy, in place of it being governed by an anti-democratic
judicial tyranny. The bill would allow the Knesset to overturn
"judicial activist" Supreme Court rulings in which Israeli non-elected
judges seek to overturn laws passed by the Knesset which the judges
personally dislike.
Let me be clear. The United States and other countries have systems
in which the Supreme Court can cancel, revoke, or overturn a law, but
that is when the judges rule that the law contradicts the
Constitution. The US Supreme Court is about to consider whether
Obama's mandatory health insurance purchase is one such
unconstitutional law. In these countries, the Courts do NOT overturn
laws simply because some judges personally disagree with them or
dislike them. Only when there is a clear contradiction of the
Constitution.
In Israel there is no formal Constitution. Nevertheless the Court has
claimed the right to overturn laws passed democratically by the
elected representatives of the people. Had the Court judges
restrained themselves and done so only in extreme cases involving
clear violations of basic rights and due procedure, perhaps the system
could have gone on operating in Israel as is. But the Israeli Supreme
Court has long been hijacked by leftist "judicial activists" who
display disdain for democracy and have no respect at all for freedom
of speech. Their goal has been to impose the leftist political agenda
on the country through court rulings. And those who are convinced
that the problem has been solved now that Beinisch is out as Chief
Justice and Grunis is in need only look at last week's Migron ruling
to see reasons for worry.
The Israeli Supreme Court has repeatedly overturned Knesset laws and
interfered in the micro-decisions and micro-management of government
and the army, all based on the political biases of the judges. The
ex-Chief Justice Aharon Barak boasted that the Court was issuing
rulings not based on any law but based on "enlightened opinion," by
which he clearly meant leftist opinion.
Well, now the elected representatives of the people are fighting back.
The Minister of Justice has placed a bill before the Knesset, and I
expect it to win if Netanyahu does not have another of his notorious
attacks of cowardice and Left-appeasing. It would allow a small
super-majority in the Knesset (65 votes in the bill, but could be
changed) to overturn a Court ruling that revokes or vetoes a Knesset
law.
The Caring Left is of course hysterical. After all, how on earth will
the radical leftist 2% of the population impose its agenda and
ideology on the other 98% if the unelected judges of the Supreme Court
are prevented from acting as dictators!!
In endorsing the bill, Maariv editor Ben Dror Yemini, himself left of
center, points out the irony that the Supreme Court cancels Knesset
laws without any requirement of a super-majority among judges voting
on the verdict, while thundering against this bill that would
introduce a Knesset super-majority for purposes of creating in Israel
checks and balances.
Yazari en sona biraktim ki arada sirada on goruslu olmadan okumaya sabri olan varsa okusun diye. Yazar: Steven Plaut.
