Levin: Court has lost public’s trust, harming governance, democracy

Justice Minister Yair Levin starts his speech by referring to a famous quote by Menachem Begin, saying that, like Begin, “I believe ‘there are judges in Jerusalem,’ but there is also a government and a Knesset in Jerusalem.”

He says not only the Knesset and government, but also the judicial system, “rest on the trust the people place in it.”

But the so-called “judicial revolution” and “the judiciary’s increasing involvement in government decisions and Knesset legislation “have brought public faith in the court system to a historic low, undermined governance and harmed democracy.”

“We go to the polls, vote, elect, and time after time, people we didn’t elect choose for us. Many sectors of the public look to the judicial system and do not find their voices heard,” he charges. “That is not democracy.”