'Attack the court, save the country' - Haaretz

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Wed., January 16, 2008 Shvat 9, 5768

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'Attack the court, save the country'

By Haaretz Editorial

Tags: Supreme Court, Israel

A recent letter to Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch demanding that she recuse herself from any deliberations on settlements, outposts or the separation fence was signed by 20 Knesset members from six factions, both coalition and opposition. This was nothing more than another sorry joke in the ongoing farce of "attack the Supreme Court and save the country."

The parliamentary letter of rebuke was sent because of Beinisch's meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones. Its signatories - from the National Union-National Religious Party, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud and Kadima - see the very fact that this meeting took place as an "unprecedented blow both to Israel's sovereignty and to the judicial system's independence."

That is nonsense. Such a meeting harms neither the state's sovereignty nor the judiciary's independence. Meetings between Supreme Court presidents and foreign ambassadors, at the request of the latter, are standard practice. Many ambassadors seek to meet the chief justice, who is a symbol of the state, and the justices accede because they understand their public role. Such meetings have never before elicited complaint - in contrast to the justified criticism of meetings between Supreme Court presidents and Knesset members.

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The letter's signatories include well-known warriors against the Supreme Court such as MKs Zevulun Orlev and Esterina Tartman. About a year ago, the latter proposed barring the court from overturning Knesset legislation - a move that would stunt the constitutional democracy that has developed here over the last 15 years. It is therefore hard to escape the impression that the letter was nothing more than a tool, albeit a weak one, for expressing a lack of confidence in the Supreme Court, without which there would be no rule of law in Israel.

The MKs who signed the letter might have hesitated had they not thought they were operating in a convenient atmosphere for "ganging up" on the court. Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who should have seen it as his job to defend the judicial system against attacks by politicians - as previous justice ministers did, even if they sometimes criticized the system - has not raised his voice against those who assail the court. Instead, he seeks to gain renown through his efforts to limit the court's authority to exercise judicial review over the Knesset and the executive, thereby undermining the public's faith in the judicial system.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who appointed Friedmann in great haste, bears primary responsibility for his ministers' words and actions, and for the very fact that they hold these posts. Yet he has remained on the sidelines, as if the whole business had nothing to do with him. Former justice ministers such as Tzipi Livni and Meir Sheetrit - who never hesitated to criticize the judicial system or fight for their positions against Supreme Court presidents, but always out of deep respect - have also remained silent.

President Shimon Peres, who appoints all judges and is the head of state, should also make himself heard on matters such as the supremacy of the law and the need to strengthen the Supreme Court as a defender of Israeli democracy in general and of the Knesset and its laws in particular. We also ought to know what Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, whom the Knesset's bylaws charge with upholding the dignity of the House, thinks about the MKs' letter, which has trampled the dignity of the entire Knesset.

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