Even very moral and polite people behave differently when no one is watching.
On a desolate road in the middle of the desert, they may also ignore a red light, and maybe even pick their nose in the process.
It's probably human nature, an external eye makes us behave differently, consciously or unconsciously.
This is why external audit is so necessary when it comes to governmental bodies.
Without it, every road is a desolate road in the desert.
Without it, these bodies will behave differently because no one is looking.
In the coalition agreements with the ultra-orthodox parties, a very significant section was stolen and almost went under the radar.
In this section, the authority of the Public Complaints Ombudsman over the judges, as far as the rabbinic court judges are concerned, is abolished.
These judges, subordinate to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, are supervised by this commissioner on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
He can be addressed with complaints about judges or the conduct of the court, and he, after review and examination, can formulate recommendations.
True, this commissioner has no enforcement powers and is not a judicial appeal body, but he has two other things:
First, his recommendations are implemented in the field and sometimes judges are suspended for them.
And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he is the external eye on the conduct of the court.
In the coalition agreements, the commissioner's powers of review over the courts are transferred to an internal body from within the courts.
That is, another judge will visit his friends.
We all understand that such criticism has no meaning whatsoever.
Imagine what would have happened if the Israel Defense Forces had been part of the Israel Police. What a crazy idea.
When is an application submitted to the commissioner?
Not when there is a desire to challenge the verdict, but because of the nature of the proceedings in the case, or the judges.
For example, in the case of one woman who was the victim of a violent husband.
When she gathered courage and filed for divorce, he fled the country.
After many efforts he was located, but refused to expel her.
Five years passed from that moment until the rabbinical court ruled, and in its ruling the judges only recommended him to get a divorce, and did not oblige him to do so.
According to the association "Deadlock", the one that helps women who are in distress and are refused a divorce to get out of their sad situation, the court acted in a procrastination, and in the end did not do what was assigned to it.
During all this time (and even after the verdict) the woman remained hanging in the air - not divorced, not married and not even refused a divorce.
For this they filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Judges' Acceptability.
If, in the end, the clause in the coalition agreements is accepted, even the few complaints that are filed today will not be filed, but due to the lack of an outside eye, it will be necessary to file many more complaints.
What does it actually matter to the ordinary citizen, or to the one who barely needs religious services?
So it is, that many of these citizens will one day reach the rabbinate, and then, when they discover that the judges are not supervised, it will be too late.
That's why "dead end" and other associations are working to cancel the aforementioned section.
They know that not everything written in the agreements is implemented, and this section must be uprooted before it becomes, God forbid, a reality.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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