Lashing High Court, justice minister says ‘reasonableness is a worldview’

Justice Minister Yariv Levin argues that “reasonableness” is a nebulous legal concept that bleeds into personal opinion, as he presents the government’s position on the bill ahead of its second reading.

Levin lists a number of High Court rulings that relied on the doctrine and says that it was inappropriate for the court to weigh in and overrule elected officials.

“You [judges] want to decide what’s reasonable and what’s not, instead of the people chosen by the nation? That’s reasonable?” he says.

“I want to say more than that — who even said that what is reasonable in the eyes of the judges is even the logical thing to do? Who decided that their personal positions are better than those of the ministers?” he continues.

“Where is the school for reasonableness, where you can learn what is reasonable? Is there such a place? Of course there isn’t!?” Levin says tauntingly from the Knesset rostrum.

“There is no such thing and there can be no such thing. Because reasonableness is a worldview. It’s not contract law, it’s not evidence law, it’s not a legal matter,” the justice minister says.

“I know that a decisive majority of the public wants changes to the judicial system,” Levin claims. He says, nevertheless, that he supports reaching “broad agreement.”