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Dear MKs, get over it already!

2020-08-04T20:40:18.622Z


Joy RotmanOne week in November 25 years ago, it was tragic and fateful for Israeli democracy. He was tragic, because on Saturday night, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in his memory. A murder that struck the country in shock and silence and changed the history of Israel. And it was fateful, this week, and to some extent tragic also because on Thursday of that week the verdict was given in th...


One week in November 25 years ago, it was tragic and fateful for Israeli democracy. He was tragic, because on Saturday night, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in his memory. A murder that struck the country in shock and silence and changed the history of Israel.

And it was fateful, this week, and to some extent tragic also because on Thursday of that week the verdict was given in the Mizrahi Bank, which only a few, knowledgeable people in black robes understood in real time. Influence the legislation in the country. Laws that in the opinion of High Court judges infringe on human rights to the required extent, or laws whose purpose is not appropriate in the eyes of the Supreme Court - will simply be deleted.

This principled assertion remained at the same stage "on paper." In practice, in the years since then, the High Court has repealed laws at a relatively slow and measured rate. Slowly heats the water so that the frog does not feel how it is cooked. And although a basic law: human dignity and liberty was enacted in 1992, in practice in six years Laws in

total.But after we got used to the principle, it was time to collect the price, and since 2012 the court has increased the pace.Four infiltrators' laws have been repealed four times, recruitment laws have been repealed three times.The Judea and Samaria Settlement Law has been repealed.The law requiring compensation for those calling for a boycott The State of Israel - Repealed From a rate of once in three and a half years, we have moved to a rate of three repeals of the law per year.

The original sin is silence. Members of the Knesset stood aside for years, allowing an unelected authority to defeat them. The power was in their hands. Many times over the years there have been proposals to restore power to the people and elected officials the last word. There were always complaints about the timing. That it requires discretion, many debates, committees, or any other mechanism the High Court could think of to exhaust the public and its elected representatives and leave power in the hands of the supreme.

But the truth is that it should not take long. When the Rabin government was required to correct Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation and to add an overruling clause due to Shas' demand, which feared the repeal of a law prohibiting the import of non-kosher meat, the then President of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, enlisted.

On February 14, 1994, a basic bill was published that allowed 61 Knesset members to overcome the High Court ruling. In less than a month, the matter was settled and the overcoming became a fact.

However, when the ideas arose to enact an overriding amendment to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, Barak To appear before the Constitution Committee and rewrite history. "I want to say," Barak said at the Constitution Committee meeting, "when they made the overcoming clause, it was not done from today to tomorrow. There was a big discussion, and I participated in parts of it. Don't kill jealousy - and don't think they were kidnappers, there was a very big debate. "

Members of the Knesset, take a few days, take even a month, have a very big debate, invite Aharon Barak if you want, but do not give up the bottom line. The power to legislate.

Israeli democracy has needed it for half a century. Get over it already!

Adv. Simcha Rotman is the legal advisor of the Governance Movement

For more views by Simcha Rotman

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2020-08-04

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