‘Human rights’ at stake – 130 law professors, attorneys sign letter against Supreme Court override bill

In Israel, which does not have a constitution, the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court’s authority to intervene in the lawmaking process has been a long running source of controversy.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Some 130 law professors, legal scholars, and prominent attorneys signed an open letter published this week which decried the potential passage of a Supreme Court override bill, calling the legislation a danger to human rights and democracy.

The bill would pave the way for Knesset votes with a simple majority to overrule Supreme Court rulings.

The passage of the law, which right-wing parties are reportedly pushing to be one of the first acts of the new government, “will seriously damage the protection of human rights in Israel and will be a cry [heard for] for generations,” read the letter.

The bill “will transform the citizens of Israel from citizens with rights, whom the Knesset must respect and the court protects, to those who are subject to the mercy of the political majority at any given moment,” the letter continued.

“For example, the Knesset, through a simple coalition majority, could limitlessly violate the right to dignity, impose movement restrictions or initiate surveillance without any effective legal supervision, prohibit demonstrations, violate freedom of religion or gender equality in all its aspects, and this without any effective judicial review.”

Notably, many of those concerns were realized during the coronavirus pandemic, when privacy advocates raised the alarm about emergency legislation which allowed police to enter citizens’ homes without warrants, as well as a Shin Bet-backed tracking system for people who tested positive for the virus.

At the time, the Supreme Court rejected multiple petitions on the matter and declined to schedule hearings regarding those policies.

Scholars and professors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sapir College, the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, and Reichman University in Herzliya were among the signatories, as well as former Communications Minister Amnon Rubinstein and former national public defender Professor Yoav Sapir.

In Israel, which does not have a constitution, the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court’s authority to intervene in the lawmaking process has been a long running source of controversy.

Israel’s Supreme Court has maintained that it has the authority to strike down legislation which violates one of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, which states that human dignity must be protected in the country.

However, the Supreme Court’s definition of what laws fall into this category has come into question, as it has unilaterally canceled 22 laws – including one which forbade leavened bread products in public hospitals during the Passover holiday – since 1995.

Critics charge that the court, which is composed of unelected judges appointed via secret vote, has repeatedly contradicted the will of publicly elected legislators without proper justification.