‘Nobody appointed the justices to run the country’: Haredi MK pans High Court for ruling against coalition laws

By Sam Sokol 4 January 2024, 7:20 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Knesset Finance Committee chair MK Moshe Gafni during a committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on September 26, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni lashes out at the High Court of Justice following two rulings against coalition legislation earlier this week, declaring that “nobody appointed the justices… to run the country.”

The ultra-Orthodox MK says in a statement the focus should be on issues that unite, rather than divide the public and the court, ostensibly suggesting that the justices should not have issued verdicts on such controversial issues during wartime.

This week, the court postponed the implementation of a law shielding the premier from the possibility of being ordered to recuse himself from office and overturned a bill preventing the judiciary from exercising oversight of government decisions via the reasonableness standard.