In an unprecedented open letter, senior and former officials attack a project that will end up “destroying the judicial system” in Israel. The method of selecting judges has been distorted, imposes serious limits on their authority, and endangers the separation of powers and their equality. Demonstrations faced by supporters and critics of the reform.
Jerusalem () – The reform proposed by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, with the support of the majority Likud party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will end up “destroying the judicial system”. In an open letter published today and “unprecedented” in the country’s history, all of Israel’s former attorney generals and the majority of retired prosecutors speak out against the executive and the law under study that will radically change justice and the right. “We have been stupefied,” say the officials, “to learn of the plan […] and we are convinced that not only will it not bring any improvement to the system but, on the contrary, it threatens to destroy it”.
In the open letter some of the country’s most authoritative magistrates assert that Levin’s plan aims to “change the method of selecting judges” and risks transforming the Supreme Court from an “independent institution” that acts “without fear nor prejudices” in a “political body”. The risk is that “suspicions” arise of distortion or use of the law “in favor of the government”, compromising at the same time the independence of the different branches of the State.
To this is added the “significant limitation” of the “authority” of judges and courts to exercise “true criticism of the government” so that it does not “abuse its powers” and leaves the field free for a majority coalition to take decisions without counterweights or limits. “All of this -they add- regardless of how erroneous or harmful a decision may be”, through a “cancellation clause”.
Judges and lawyers continue to recall in the letter that the Supreme Court is a “courageous institution”, among the “best” in the history of Israel and “recognized” abroad as one of the most “authoritative” in the world. In the absence of a Constitution and without a human rights bill, it is the one that has defended the rule of law in Israel even with respect to the executive power, fighting its arbitrariness and corruption and protecting human rights, also of minority groups. Now these results, they warn, are “in serious danger” so the government must abandon the reform plan and “avoid new and more serious damage” to the judicial system. The goal, they conclude, must be “to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in light of the values” expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
The judicial reform plan that Netanyahu wants continues to fuel confrontations and divisions in the country, with opposing demonstrations for or against in which executive sympathizers and critical voices participate. The parliamentary opposition calls for massive protests in the streets against a reform that will weaken not only the Supreme Court but all of Israel’s democratic institutions. Groups of activists demonstrated outside the house of the Minister of Justice last night, in response to an earlier rally of pro-government groups that had gathered near the house of former High Court president Aharon Barak, one of the voices more criticism from the opposition front.
