'Supreme Court' to finally shift right?
I have written before about how the branja - Israel's political elites - are able to keep non-Leftist views from being heard in Israel's courts in general - and in its 'Supreme Court' in particular - through their domination of the judicial selection process. On Monday night, in a stunning defeat for opposition leader Tzipi Livni, the Knesset voted 59-58 to name National Union's Uri Ariel (pictured) as the Knesset's 'opposition representative' to the judicial selection committee. As a result, for the first time in anyone's memory, opponents of 'judicial activism' dominate the selection committee. The Supreme Court and other courts are expected to shift to the right and become less activist after the Knesset voted two right-wing MKs to the judicial selection committee on Monday.Israel Radio reported on Monday night that Livni complained that the selection violates a 'Knesset tradition' in which the opposition seat on the committee goes to the largest party in the opposition, which in this case would be Kadima.
National Union MK Uri Ariel and Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem were voted on to the committee as representatives of the opposition and coalition, respectively, defeating Kadima MK Ronnie Bar-On and Labor MK Eitan Cabel.
Ariel and Rotem will join ministers Yaakov Neeman and Gilad Erdan and Israel Bar Association representative Pinhas Marinsky to give opponents of judicial activism their first majority on the committee in recent memory.
The four proponents of judicial activism on the committee are Supreme Court justices Dorit Beinisch, Ayala Procaccia and Edmond Levy and bar association representative Rachel Bar-Or.
Neeman, who as justice minister heads the committee, intends to convene it soon to start filling multiple vacancies on the Supreme Court and several key lower courts.
The vote was seen as a big victory for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and a major defeat for Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, even though Netanyahu's associates denied charges that he campaigned for Ariel over Bar-On.
All I can say about this is "it's about time."
Heh.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:58 AM
4 Comments:
Its been long overdue since the Israel Supreme Court selected not only its own membership but all the judges of the lower courts as well since these invariably came largely from the Left. Hopefully, it will bring about more balance in Israel's secular courts as well as rein in the judicial activism that makes the American one look restrained by comparison. And Yaakov Neeman is no friend of the way Israeli courts have been run up to now.
This is "big medicine" -- a development as critically important to Israel's future as what is currently going on with Obama.
As I understand it, Israel's Supreme Court also acts as the High Court which can and does directly challenge State decisions on all matters including those of national security. Thus far, it has served the secular post-Zionists well by micromanaging and constraining not only the government but also the IDF as it seeks to defend Israel against Arab terror. This has been a disaster IMO for Israeli deterrence against a brutal enemy which respects no moral boundaries.
Long live the new Court.
surprised no one picked on critique of ronnie bar-on upon his nomination for attorney general - why is he suddenly the darling of the elite?
found this link to barak's description of bar-on
http://law.themarker.com/tmc/article.jhtml?ElementId=skira200090529_72778
This is the most hopeful posting I've seen in a long time.
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