Former Supreme Court Justice and Attorney General Menachem “Meni” Mazuz said on Sunday that the Netanyahu government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary and limit the independent powers of the high court was “the most serious threat ever to Israel’s democracy”. danger”.
Mazuz, speaking at an event organized by Haaretz in Tel Aviv on Sunday, said the ongoing public outcry were necessary against the coalition’s attempts to weaken the judiciary. “At this time, silence is abhorrent,” Mazuj said, borrowing a phrase from a 1932 poem by Revisionist Zionist visionary Ze’ev Jabotinsky titled “Shir Betar (Son of Betar)”.
Mazuj, best remembered for indicting former prime minister Ehud Olmert on corruption charges while he was attorney general between 2004-2010, said on Sunday that “it’s up to each one of us to explain to our children and grandchildren will – what did [we] What to do to save democracy from harm?
Mazuj blasted the plans as “a series of moves directed against the justice system, but their real goal is to crush Israel’s democracy, damage the balances and brakes on which democracy is based, and consequently damage human rights”. delivers.”
Earlier this month, Mazuz signed a Letters by almost all attorneys general and state attorneys since 1975 condemning the government’s plans, and warning it “threatens to destroy the justice system.” Signatories included former Attorneys General Avichai Mandelblit and Yehuda Weinstein; retired Supreme Court chiefs Aharon Barak and Dorit Benish; and retired Supreme Court Justices Yitzhak Zamir, Eliakim Rubinstein, Edna Arbel and Michael Ben-Yair.
Mazuz said on Sunday that public discourse in Israel “should not fall into [a] Adopting the terminology of entrapment and reform,” as the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government presents a judicial shake-up. The prime minister has argued that the overhaul would strengthen Israel’s democracy.
“The public is not stupid and does not buy the spin,” Mazuj said. “The public understands that there is a constitutional revolution here that will have consequences in all areas of life. We see how fringe groups in Israeli society get involved and express their opposition to the government’s moves,” he told former attorney generals and state added in the context of growing opposition to the judicial overhaul by lawyers for leading economistbusiness, and the beleaguered Israeli tech sector.
Israelis protest against proposed changes to the legal system in Tel Aviv on January 28, 2023. (Tomer Newberg/Flash90)
Retired judge said Israel’s judicial system was “the only and last deterrent to Islamic brutality” [governing] Leadership. The judicial system is the basis of a functioning democracy, as opposed to a democracy in appearance [only],
“No government or Knesset has the mandate to harm the Jewish and democratic nature of the country,” Mazuj said.
The Netanyahu coalition’s proposal, as presented by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would severely restrict the High Court’s ability to overrule laws and government decisions, with an “override clause” allowing the Knesset to overrule laws with a low majority. Will enable to re-legislate. 61; giving the government complete control over the selection of judges; Prohibit courts from using the test of “reasonableness” to judge laws and government decisions; and allow ministers to appoint their own legal advisers rather than seek advice from advisers working under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice.
Majuj, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, Guilty At the end of 2021 the Prime Minister in the midst of his ongoing criminal trial “police, the [state] Prosecutors, Attorney General, Courts.
Critics have long accused Netanyahu and allied lawmakers of seeking to circumvent the court system in order to avoid the criminal charges the prime minister has brought against him.
Netanyahu is facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in three corruption cases. He denies wrongdoing and claims the charges were fabricated in an attempted political coup led by police, state prosecutors, the media and left-wing rivals.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference in Jerusalem on January 25, 2023. (Jonathan Sindel/Flash90)
Speaking at the same conference on Sunday, former state’s attorney Moshe Ledor also called for public protests against the proposed judicial reform.
“If we don’t act, it will be too late,” he said, adding that the current government was moving forward “little by little, in a bunch of changes and reforms”, but “as important as the opposition and opposition was important.” More they will speed up the law.
“Normal legislative procedures in the Knesset take a long time to pass, sometimes years. And here is a constitutional change that happened in the blink of an eye,” said Ledor of the government’s efforts.
Lador, who sued Olmert last month, Told Plans to bring about radical changes in the judiciary were being “pushed forward in a colossal and vigorous manner, which I am sure would change the face of the country.” They said Netanyahu knew he was in serious legal trouble from his ongoing trial on corruption charges and was acting to discredit the judiciary to save himself from prison.
Moshe Lador in the Knesset in February 2012. (Kobi Gideon / Flash90)
“Detaining and summoning Netanyahu is a very serious mistake, and it is leading us to the destruction of democracy and to dictatorship,” Lador said on Sunday. “I am of the opinion that this reality should not have been allowed should this happen to the prime minister,” said a defendant in court, accused of corruption crimes he allegedly committed during his previous term.
Former deputy attorney-general Dana Zilber also spoke at the conference on Sunday, warning the country was not about to “cry wolf”, it is a ‘red alert’, she warned in reference to the Hebrew name for rocket sirens The attack was coming.
“It is an opportunity and an invitation to the Israeli public in the 75th year of the state, for civil resistance,” she said.
