"On Wednesday, everything could catch fire," warned frightening giant ads with a picture of a burning bonfire. Why? "Because then we will know if they are destroying the High Court of Justice," explains the extremists among the protest organizers. The asterisk refers to the explanation: "On June 14, the Knesset will elect two representatives to the committee... Netanyahu and Levin are plotting to elect two representatives to the coalition in order to destroy the High Court of Justice."
It is intriguing to know what the outcome would be if we posed the question to opponents of the government: "What is the legal status of electing an opposition representative to the Judicial Selection Committee?" and gave three options for choice: a. a longstanding constitutional practice since the 50s that has become binding; b. a non-binding practice that the High Court has expressly determined has no status or judicial basis of constitutional custom; c. A longstanding but stable practice since the 90s from which the Knesset has never deviated (correct answer below).
"Let the facts speak" is the subtitle of the book "Factuality" (Matar Publishing, 2022) by the late Prof. Hans Rosling, who was a doctor at the United Nations. In 2017, he conducted a basic knowledge test of 13 questions for 12,14 people, many of them educated, in 13 countries. The questions were simple and basic. For example: "How many year-olds in the world today have been vaccinated against any disease?" Only 80% gave the correct answer - <>%. The vast majority chose answers that described a reality far worse than it really is.
The overall results were astonishing: 12,13 people answered only two out of 19 questions correctly on average. "Some of the most shocking results came from a group of Nobel laureates and medical researchers" (p. 33). Rosling was troubled by the fact that the results were much lower than what a group of chimpanzees would have achieved. After all, without any knowledge, randomly marking an answer out of three possible ones, the average score should be about 20%. But educated people scored much lower than chimpanzees. Rosling understood that the problem was not a lack of knowledge, but worse: "Only actively wrong 'knowledge' can cause us to fail like this" (p. <>).
The book details ten human instincts that accumulate into a system of deception, which leads us to perceive reality as far worse than it really is. Each chapter focuses on a different instinct, and also includes recommendations on how to watch out for that instinct and avoid distorted perception of reality.
So what is the right answer regarding the obligation to elect an opposition representative on the Judicial Selection Committee? The correct answer is B, in stark contrast to the image that opponents of the government are trying to sell us.
As the High Court said: "The binding validity of the constitutional custom has not yet been recognized in our law," clarifies Justice Yitzhak Amit. "A look at history... It shows that on the factual level, question marks remain regarding the existence of a consistent and uniform practice over decades... In view of all the provisions enshrined in the Basic Law: Judiciary... The constitutional arrangement on the issue before us leaves no crack through which the alleged custom can take root. Legislative history also shows that the legislature consciously chose not to impose an obligation to elect a representative from the opposition factions..."
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