‘A plan to change Israel’s DNA’: 80,000 rally in Tel Aviv against judicial overhaul
Braving rain, opponents of coalition’s radical proposals protest at Habima Square
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Report: Coalition aims to quickly restore Deri as minister if court disqualifies him
Government will expedite legislation to eliminate ‘reasonableness’ clause, in order to remove the basis for any court decision to reject Shas chief’s appointment, Channel 12 says
With the High Court of Justice set to deliver its ruling this week on the legitimacy of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri’s appointment as minister, Channel 12 news reported Saturday on the government’s planned course of action should the court disqualify him.
The court is set to rule following deliberations on petitions demanding Deri’s appointment as a cabinet minister be rejected due to his recent conviction on tax offenses.
The report said if Deri is forced to step down, the coalition will
expedite its legislative effort to annul the “reasonableness”
consideration, which allows courts to rule that certain actions or
decisions are void due to being unreasonable in the extreme.
Any High Court decision to invalidate Deri’s appointment is likely to lean on that legal clause, and the coalition hopes a swift legislative process to eliminate it within some two months will allow Deri to return as minister, the report said.
Deri, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most senior partner in the coalition, currently serves as both interior and health minister.
The petitions against Deri’s appointment, submitted by the Movement for Quality Government, the Movement for Ethical Behavior and a group of private individuals, argue that his 2022 conviction on tax fraud charges, added to his conviction in 1999 on bribery charges, makes his appointment “unreasonable.”
During the High Court session on the petitions earlier this month, judges appeared skeptical regarding the arguments of Deri’s lawyers, who posited that the court did not have the authority to overturn his appointment.
Sources close to Deri later blamed Justice Minister Yariv Levin for antagonizing the court with his legal “bombshell” announced on the eve of the hearing, in which Levin detailed his plans to radically overhaul Israel’s legal and judicial system — severely limiting the authority of the High Court, giving the government the ability to overturn rulings, handing it control over judicial selection, and significantly limiting the authority of government legal advisers.
A government amendment passed last month changed one of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws to allow Deri to be appointed to a cabinet portfolio despite having received a 12-month suspended jail sentence in February 2022 that is yet to expire.
The petitions argue that the legislation allowing his appointment was illegitimate, since it was passed due to the political considerations of an individual politician and the new government.
A poll this month indicated less than a quarter of Israelis support Deri’s appointment. The Channel 12 survey found 65 percent of respondents opposed it, 22% supported it and 13% were unsure.
Among supporters of Netanyahu’s bloc, 43% said it was not appropriate for Deri to serve as a minister, while 42% said it was.
Yes, Deri needs to be made to permanently disappear from ALL involvement in politics.
ReplyDeleteThat said, here is my perspective to the proposed judicial overhaul (in the final four paragraphs, to be sure);I do believe that some sort of judicial overhaul is imperative:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/when-the-us-congress-overrode-the-us-supreme-court/
The problem with the "reasonableness" clause is that there is no definition. Therefore, in a court where almost every judge is a self-selected secular leftist, what is reasonable will be what they think it is based on their ideology, not a more objective system.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada we have a similar problem with our Supreme Court where activist judges created a new idea - "reading in" as in "Well the Constitution nowhere actually says this but we're sure that the people who wrote it would agree with us so we're reading this into it and then judging based on that". There has to be a limit.
The problem with the "reasonableness" clause is that there is no definition.
ReplyDelete*
Let's agree to agree --- for starters, a twice convicted felon, including accepting bribes while being a minister, should not be in government. Even in Uganda, that would not be acceptable.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/when-the-us-congress-overrode-the-us-supreme-court/
ReplyDeleteProf:
Well thought out --- an outlier from 1924 does not make a cogent justice system in the USA or anywhere.
Therefore --- you don't want politicians, "Santosesque" corrupt to its core, all 435 of them and 100 in the Senate, to enact our laws!
Or in Israel's present ruling majority where the rebbe or the rabbi decides reasonableness!
No system is perfect ---- but I'll take the present system with all its imperfections.
The Yated is on a roll. It's getting difficult to count how many lowlife criminals have had glowing pieces about them in the newspaper in the last year to somehow promote them as upstanding Yidden.
ReplyDeleteThis week was alter Poilisher Avrom Moshe Mialczyn who changed his name to Morris Cohen. The Yated glorifies that he was the only White man to ever be a General in the Chinese Army. Never mind I guess that it was not shayich to be frum there. The Yated does fleetingly admit he probably never kept Shabbos again after moving from London to Canada as a bochur. The Yated even admires his minhag Eisav that he was always armed with two loaded guns.
What Pinny & the Yated cover up is that Mialczyn-Cohen was career criminal constantly in & out of jail as a professional pick pocket and child rapist.
The only "limud zechus" I can think of for this criminal to be so honored on the pages of the Yated is more fawning admiration of how he was a groisseh Tzioni. Now Philly will really show the talmidei R' Aron Kotler & talmidei Brisker Rov who were moiche against Philly's Tzioni meshugassen!
Here's another proposal in Knesset that should be no less alarming than the Deri problem:
ReplyDeletehttps://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-mental-health-matter-of-life-and-death
Prof:
ReplyDeleteWe grew up questioning even the Hava Amina...!!! Not to be confused with “Hava Nagila,”
> Let's agree to agree --- for starters, a twice convicted felon, including accepting bribes while being a minister, should not be in government.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. Deri is an arrogant criminal who just today announced that even if the court disqualifies him, he won't step down. Horrible. He should be banned from government for life.
But this is bigger than Deri. The majority of judges on the Supreme Court are leftover socialist secular Ashkenazis who think that the way Israel was run in the 1950's and 60's is the way it should be run today. The country has changed.
The majority of judges on the Supreme Court are leftover socialist secular Ashkenazis who think that the way Israel was run in the 1950's and 60's is the way it should be run today. The country has changed.
ReplyDelete******
I'll take the seculars over these guys every day including Shabbos:
Passing a law to regulate the exemption of ultra-Orthodox youth from enlisting in the army
Having a Chief Rabbinate representative on any panel weighing permits for work on Shabbos
Barring electricity production on Shabbos
Funding special archives known as a “genizah” — to preserve “shaimos” documents and papers containing Hashem’s name
Forming and funding bodies to provide answers to the public on questions of halacha
An agreement to increase the number of gender-segregated beaches
Discounting public transportation in predominantly ultra-Orthodox cities
Providing Charedim with affirmative action when applying for jobs in state-controlled bodies
Allowing hospitals to ban chametz on Pesach
Allowing any citizen to demand in-ground burial, instead of above-ground structures known as vertical cemeteries established to battle overcrowding
Requiring more religious studies in the state’s secular school system
Weighing the closure of the new Reform department in the Diaspora Affairs Ministry
Mandating that all online government services also be provided via phone for those who shun internet use, as many ultra-Orthodox do
Increasing government payouts to yeshiva students
The report also claimed that several Charedim would be appointed to Cabinet positions, including Goldknopf as Housing and Construction Minister, and Moshe Gafni as chairman of the Finance Committee. In addition, Meir Porush would be appointed Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Tradition, and Uri Makalev as a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Transportation and in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Again, I agree that Bibi sold his soul and the country's future to protect himiself. the Chareidi parties are parasites who will suck the lifeblood out of the country and migrate to new Jersay after they're done to find more suckers to live off of.
ReplyDeletebut this has always been the danger of democracy. It has the option to destroy itself. Otherwise you have a sytem where certain election outcomes can't be accepted and what's the point of that?
but this has always been the danger of democracy.
ReplyDelete****
Israel is a "pretend" democracy --- trust me on this one!
Look, if you want to see a pretend democracy, look at Canada or the UK. When the ruling party has a majority, as long as its MP's stay loyal there is nothing that can unseat it or stop it from passing any legislation it wants, assuming it doesn't violate the constitution. It's a controlled system in which we vote for a new dictator every 4 years but the bottom line is that the Prime Minister in such a situation is a dictator as long as he has the loyalty of his MP's. Now in England, that's not guaranteed so they really do have a better system but in Canada, MP's never, ever revolt against the leader when they're in government
ReplyDeleteIs this regard, Israel is a way better democracy since the prime minister can never be assured of any support even from his friends.
https://knesset.gov.il/constitution/ConstIntro_eng.htm
ReplyDeleteIsrael has no written constitution. Various attempts to draft the formal document since 1948 have fallen short of the mark, and instead Israel has evolved a system of basic laws and rights, which enjoy semi-constitutional status. This provisional solution is increasingly inadequate for Israel's needs, and the necessity for completing this historic task has never been so urgent.
The only constitution Israel has is under every politician's table!