Will the broad powers granted to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir be curtailed? High Court justices are considering disqualifying the amendment to the Police Ordinance granting new powers to the defense minister, an amendment dubbed the "Ben-Gvir Law." The justices issued a conditional order instructing the government to explain why they should not rescind the amendment.
Demonstrators protest against the government's measures with a picture of Ben-Gvir in the background, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
As part of the order, Justices Uzi Fogelman, Yitzhak Amit and Yehiel Kasher clarified that the discussion from now on will not deal with the manner in which the amendment was enacted, but rather with the nature of the amendment itself and whether it meets the constitutional criteria.
Yaniv Zohar
The legal significance of such an order is that the justices were persuaded by the petitioners' arguments and are now shifting the burden from the petitioners, who should have been persuaded about the illegality of the law, to the government, which must now explain why, given the petitioners' reasons, the amendment to the law will not be repealed.
Attorney Jonathan Berman, who represents the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and other organizations in the petition, said: "We welcome the High Court's decision, which requires the state to explain the intention to subject the police to Ben-Gvir's political considerations. It seems that even the justices of the High Court of Justice understand that this is a law that constitutes a danger to democracy and human rights in Israel."
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