Doctors warn they won’t show up for work if government scorns a High Court ruling
‘White Coats’ protest group says that a government that doesn’t abide by court decisions is a ‘criminal dictatorship’
Doctors opposed to the government’s judicial overhaul efforts announced Monday that they would not come in to work if the government refuses to abide by a potential High Court of Justice ruling against its legislative push.
“We’re facing a real possibility that the prime minister and his cabinet will not abide by a Supreme Court ruling,” said a statement by the doctors, who belong to an anti-overhaul group calling itself “The White Coats.”
“If the prime minister and his cabinet intentionally refuse to abide by a court ruling, or give orders to public servants that contradict a court ruling, then they are leading a criminal dictatorship that has lost its legitimacy, and should not be obeyed,” the statement continued.
“We are declaring that in the case of a constitutional crisis, we will be forced to not report for duty until the government returns to respecting Supreme Court rulings.”
The statement further urged the doctors union, the Histadrut labor federation and all citizens to make similar announcements.
The judicial legislation involves several changes — passed by a slim majority — to Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws. These have never before been struck down by the High Court.
In recent interviews to the foreign press, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to say whether he would abide by a court ruling against changes to a Basic Law.
Other members of his party have said the government would abide by such a ruling. But after the court on Sunday issued an interim injunction relating to a Basic Law amendment, coalition party heads denounced the move while insisting the court did not have the authority to contest the details of a Basic Law.
That court case relates to recent legislation eliminating the ability of the court or the attorney general to order a prime minister to recuse themselves from office.
The injunction indicated that the court is considering an “interpretative” solution to the controversial legislation — which was seemingly largely tailored for Netanyahu and his legal entanglements — where, instead of the court taking the drastic and unprecedented step of striking the law down entirely, the law would come into effect at a later date to remedy the problematic way it was advanced.
Following the passage of the separate “Reasonableness” law two weeks ago, the Israel Medical Association staged a one-day strike, leaving public health facilities with skeleton staffing. That law ended courts’ ability to strike down cabinet and ministerial decisions based on their “reasonableness.” A labor court ordered the healthcare industry back to work later in the day.
Last week, Channel 12 reported that, as a result of the judicial overhaul, thousands of doctors have joined a WhatsApp chat group seeking advice on how to relocate overseas, and some have begun to receive lucrative offers to move to the UAE.
The possibility of doctors moving abroad has alarmed Israeli health officials.
Last week, the Health Ministry’s director general, Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, held an emergency meeting with doctors, urging them to not “give up” on Israel’s public health system.
Public health workers have warned that the government’s judicial overhaul proposals will have negative consequences on their profession.
In addition to the turmoil over the government’s judicial policies, the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned that Israel is facing an impending shortage of doctors.
The organization in June warned of doctor shortages as early as 2025, pointing out that Israel does not have a proper system in place to manage manpower in the medical profession. The report also called on Israel to increase the number of medical students and accredit an additional new medical school.
