Supreme Court head accuses Netanyahu government of undermining judicial independence
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
In a combative and confrontational speech, Acting Supreme Court President Isaac Amit lambastes the government and Justice Minister Yariv Levin for what he said was their actions designed to undermine the independence of the judiciary in a public speech at the Israeli Association for Public Law.
His comments come hot on the trail of the High Court’s decision ordering Levin to hold a vote to appoint a new Supreme Court president within a month, after the minister has dragged his feet on implementing an earlier less concrete ruling to the same effect.
In response Levin called the court a dictatorship and failed to say whether he would abide by the order, calling instead to bring back the government’s agenda to neuter the judiciary, thus reviving fears of a full-blown constitutional crisis.
“Precisely in these days, we are witnessing attempts to undermine the strength of the judiciary and to weaken it – to the point of real concern about eroding the institutional independence of the judiciary and the foundations of the separation of powers,” asserts Amit.
The acting head of the judiciary points to Levin’s judicial overhaul agenda which would have given the government control over the judiciary; calls by ministers and MKs to ignore Supreme Court rulings; government efforts to assert control over the appointment of the state ombudsman for judges; Levin’s refusal to meet with Amit and his predecessor for over half a year; Levin’s efforts to curtail judicial positions on benches around the country through the state budget; and Levin’s slow-walking of the appointment process for a new Supreme Court president itself.
“This is the first time in the history of the country that the executive branch has so blatantly interfered in the internal management of the judiciary and the way its resources are allocated,” storms Amit.
“And don’t let the technical terminology fool you: harming the institutional strength of the judiciary is harming the authority of the judiciary, and above all, its responsibility to the entire public,” he continues, adding that “The Judicial Authority will stand strong in the face of the attempts to weaken its institutional resilience”