Justice minister takes fresh aim at Supreme Court over gas deal

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Monday attacked the Supreme Court for “wielding authority without responsibility” in its decision to intervene in the government’s framework agreement granting two conglomerates the rights to extract Israel’s offshore natural gas reserves.

The court ruled that the deal must be canceled within a year unless a controversial clause that barred future governments from altering the deal for 10 years was either overturned or significantly amended.

“A judicial body that has no responsibility for filling the [country’s] coffers is the one that allows itself to empty them,” Shaked told a conference of the Israeli Bar Association in Eilat, Haaretz reported.

Supreme Court President Miriam Naor last week criticized politicians and ministers for attacking the court’s decision, saying: “Some of the things that were heard [with regard to the ruling], even by the officials in the executive and legislative branches, are unfitting for a Jewish and democratic state that respects the rule of law and the independence of the judicial system.”

Shaked, who unlike many of her predecessors is not a lawyer, has been an outspoken supporter of limiting the judicial branch’s power.

The court’s ruling put the brakes on a gas deal touted by the government as having the potential to bring hundreds of millions into state coffers and transform the country into a regional energy powerhouse.

Shaked claimed that the court had exceeded its authority with the ruling, turning itself “once again” into a place for clarifying “political and refined macroeconomic questions” whose resolution was the purview of elected members of the Knesset.

She said the court’s decision was likely to cost the state hundreds of billions of shekels. “I hope that we won’t turn, in the eyes of the world, into a country that eats its investors.”

Shaked stressed the importance of appointing judges who would maintain the strength and prestige of the court, “but not at the cost of weakening the Knesset and the government’s ability to act in matters of policy which do not harm human rights.”

Just under a year ago, as the newly appointed justice minister, Shaked told a similar conference of the Bar Association in Eilat that curtailing the power of the judiciary branch would be a top priority.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog hit back at Shaked by tweeting that her “tirade against the Supreme Court is a disgrace and crosses the boundaries. It’s shooting and breaking and destroying the house that belongs to us all.”

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit meanwhile used his first public speech since assuming office to stress the importance of respecting the court and the independence of judges, especially when it rules against the government “and against my own position.” Mandelblit told the conference that from the moment the Supreme Court expressed its decision “it was our obligation to respect the judgement and the court.”

Mandelblit said he had also disagreed with a court ruling against sealing the homes of three Palestinians accused of involvement in the death of Alexander Levlovitz, 64, who died of injuries sustained when his car smashed into a lamppost and a tree in September after being pelted with stones. Mandelblit had argued in favor of sealing the homes.

“Disagreements over substance are one thing,” he said, “and harm to the standing and functioning of the legal system is another, which I’m not prepared to accept.”