Page 49 - HaMizrachi # 22 Rosh HahHana - Yom Kippur 2020 USA

ISRAEL INSIGHT THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND

David M. Weinberg

Curb the Imperious

Israeli Supreme Court

srael’s Supreme Court has gone the Temple Mount because this would So it may be when the Court rules on
beyond the limits of “reasonable” disturb the Arabs and require a mas- the historic Jewish Nation-State law of
Iintervention in Israeli political and sive police presence. On the other hand, 2018, which was passed as a “Basic Law”
public life with its ever-expanding scope the Court has found it “reasonable” to – meaning that it was meant as supra-
of super-subjective decision-making. allow the Women of the Wall to pray in Court constitutional legislation. The
a manner offensive to most worshippers Court has no right to touch this. Nev-
Going back 25 years to the term of then- at the Western Wall despite the distur- ertheless, current Chief Justice Esther
Court President (Chief Justice) Aharon bance involved and the massive police Hayut has convened an 11-justice panel
Barak, the Court effectively stripped presence required to make it feasible. to judge the law’s “reasonableness.”
Israeli law of any inherent meaning and
created complete legal mayhem. Barak It was found “unreasonable” that Reli- So it may be when the Court rules soon
and his colleagues developed a series gious Zionist Jews operate “acceptance on a petition from a group of extremist
of mumbo-jumbo, infinitely pliant con- committees” to maintain distinctly professors to terminate all government
cepts that allow High Court justices to homogenous small communities even funding for gender-separate Haredi col-
apply their own sensibilities to issues though is this basic libertarianism, not lege programs. Accepting the petition
before the Court; to socially re-engineer discrimination. But it is “reasonable” for would be a disaster for the slow but
Israeli society – in their enlightened Bedouins and Arabs to operate “accep- measurable movement of Haredi men
image, of course. tance committees,” because they are and women into the workforce – which
considered “distinct” and apparently is crucial for the Israeli economy and the
“Reasonableness” is a term that runs more kosher communities by the Court. future of our society.
like a computer virus through the
High Court’s decisions over the past It was “reasonable” for the Central Elec- What is next? Well, would a decision
two decades. It is authoritarian jargon tions Committee to ban the right-wing by the government to extend Israeli law
which means the Court elastically can and anti-Arab “Otzma Le-Yisrael” party to security zones and all settlements in
go any way it pleases; as are the Court’s from running in the three last election Judea and Samaria be a “reasonable”
“broad interpretations” of law to fit its campaigns, said the High Court. But decision? How about the opposite
own perceptions of “values,” “balance,” it was “unreasonable” to disallow the decision – to dismantle all settlements?
and “equality.” anti-Israel Joint Arab List from running, Which of these decisions would be “rea-

Given the longstanding makeup of including some of its openly pro-ter- sonable” and which not? The imperious
the Court, decisions that employ such rorist candidates like Heba Yazbak and High Court justices will decide, not the
electorate – unless the Knesset legislates
supple and flexible principles invariably Hanin Zoabi.
are skewed in favor of the liberal side of So it was again this year when the High limits on the High Court’s reach, or at
the political spectrum. Court of Justice struck down the 2017 least enacts an override provision.
And thus, the Court has ruled in recent Settlements Regularization Law as
years with a liberal fist on the allocation “unconstitutional,” because it impinges
of JNF land, Palestinian residency rights on the land rights of absentee Palestin-
in Israel, rights of foreign converts to ians and mere cash compensation isn’t
citizenship, Haredi draft deferments and sufficient. But it was okay to crush the
stipends to yeshiva students, commerce rights of Israeli Jews and expel them
and road closings on Shabbat, and more. from their homes in Gush Katif with David M. Weinberg is vice president of
a few pennies of compensation. (The the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and
The Court has found it “unreasonable” Court refused to intervene in that Security, jiss.org.il. His personal site is
that religious Jews be allowed to pray on matter.) davidmweinberg.com.

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