Judiciary Reform
We all need a strong Judiciary. It is one of the three pillars of a democratic government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. Each one has a job to do. The Executive conducts the affairs of the country. The Legislative passes laws that are legally binding on the country. The Judicial must study and rule if a new law follows the Legal decisions in the law of Israel. It is very simple. Israel has laws starting from 1948. There are laws, and there are precedents. Then Aharon Barak, former attorney general and then President of the Supreme Court in Israel, started to make changes that have altered our legal system. Today, the courts can decide an issue not based on whether something is legal, but on whether it makes sense (reasonable clause).
While I cannot say I am a lawyer, as someone who studied Education law with State Supreme Court Justices in the US and has studied Talmud, one does not rule based on what is reasonable. One rules on what the law says. In other words, is our country's legal system being decided by the whims or mores of an unelected Judicial body? I understand hiring Justices for a lifetime position (until retirement in Israel) because you don't want them to be beholden to any one group. Yet here in Israel, many of the Supreme Court seem to be beholden to their own niche.
A case in point is the choosing of the new judges for the Supreme Court. Right now, the system is completely wrong. A nine-person panel consisting of three judges, two lawyers, the Minister of Justice, and one Member of Knesset from each side of the aisle. So, in essence, the Justices and their Lawyer friends — who, in their right mind, as a lawyer having to face these judges in court, would even decide or vote against the Judges? That would be career suicide. So, 5 out of 9 is already a strong majority, and no one will be able to pass a judge through that the judges don't want. What happened to the judges being chosen by the people? In essence, the Knesset should be the ones to determine who is to be chosen. The PM should nominate; the Knesset should interview and review candidates, and that is how a normal country chooses its judges. I personally think judges should be voted in via city elections just like the mayor and councilmen. Then they work their way up (just like in the US and other places) to the state level and then are nominated by the PM and voted in by a majority of Knesset members.
Recently, the judge who claims he is the president of the Supreme Court (I write claims because he was not nominated by the PM or the Minister of Justice, nor voted in by the Justice selection committee, and he basically nominated himself) said, “Why are the members of Knesset thinking that they can choose a Judge for the Supreme Court? They are not the best decision-makers. We, the members of the Supreme Court, WE KNOW BETTER THAN THE MEMBERS OF KNESSET, and therefore WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CHOOSE THE JUDGES”. This is clearly the idea of the inmates running the insane asylum. Would anyone in their right mind allow Judges to choose their own colleagues, friends, and family members? Well, this is what is going on throughout the entire Judicial system. It reeks of nepotism and of an autocratic governing body which is destroying the concept of the will of the people.
Minister Levin started the ball rolling. In my opinion, he needed to take a few wins first on the smaller issues and then go into the selection committee policy. He didn't, and that was his prerogative as Justice Minister. What happened next was that the Judges and the left proceeded to take apart the will of the people. We are living precariously close to an undemocratic / Autocratic politburo, aka a communist country. This is not just a small issue. This is one of THE ISSUES that the next election must decide.
I vote for a strong judiciary, understanding its place that the people vote in their Knesset members, and it is they who have the right to choose the next Judges coming in after being nominated by a selection committee that represents the will of the people. Now, those on the left will say, but the right will choose only right-wing judges. Well, in the next elections you get to vote, and if the left wins, they get to choose. That is how democracy works. If the Judges continue on this overbearing, brute force / heavy handed conduct, they will cause our democracy to end. This can't be a good thing for anyone.
Judges are supposed to rule on the laws. Not make up the laws. Judges are supposed to rule whether someone followed the law, not whether they think the law is not a good one. That is for the Knesset to decide. I will support the Judiciary reforms strongly as a major issue in this 26th Knesset. I hope you will help me!