The most undemocratic of the hurried Supreme Court announcements on Monday was not the 8 to 7 ruling revoking the amendment that removed the reasonability clause. That ruling was a mugging that took advantage of the political echelon’s reluctance to counterattack in wartime and used a very temporary majority of 8 to 7 justices that included two retired justices. Without them the vote on the same amendment, after the government gets around to rewriting it, will likely be reversed to 7 to 6 against.
But the punch-in-the-face, no-holds-barred decision on Monday was that the Supreme Court has the authority to conduct a judicial review of basic laws and intervene in “exceptional and extreme cases where the Knesset exceeded its constituent authority,”
That one was passed with a 12 to 3 majority, meaning it will not go away. What used to be the sanctified rule for close to 75 years, that Israel’s basic laws are tantamount to a constitution, and as such the court cannot contemplate anything that starts with the words “basic law,” is no longer.
Chairman of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman said, “I was hoping that they were connected to the magnitude of the hour, but unfortunately they chose to give a different ruling – the High Court chose its war.”
“The Supreme Court’s ruling is not legal, and includes the unprecedented cancellation of a Basic Law, without a source of legal authority and with a conflict of interest on the part of the judges. This is a dangerous, anti-democratic event – and at this time, more than anything else, it is a ruling that harms Israel’s war efforts against her enemies,” said MK Tzvikah Fogel.