INSIGHT I
Please join us for a
Parlour Meeting
on behalf of the
Yeshiva Gedolah Ateres Mordechai
of Greater Detroit
honoring
Neil Satovsky
Israel's High Court
Is Primary Protector
N
ZE'EV CHAFETS
Israel Correspondent
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 7, 1989
at the home of
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Rosenhaus
26880 Willogreen
Franklin, Michigan
Honorary Chairmen:
Honorable Avern Cohn
David B. Hermelin
Chairmen
Emanuel Feinberg Randy Friedman
Richard Rosenhaus Dr. Arnold Zuroff
Special guest speaker Rabbi Dr. Nota Schiller
Dean of Ohr Somayach/Tanenbaum College of Judaic Studies,
Jerusalem, Israel / Institutions worldwide.
For further information please contact Rabbi Eric Krohner' 968 3 3 61.
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GORNBEIN'S
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GORNBEINO
JEWELERS
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Fidelity Bank Building
24901 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield
357.1056
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1989
American
Heart
Association
of long ago, a Tel
Aviv restaurant re-
ceived an order from
the municipality to remove
the tables it had placed on the
broad sidewalk outside. The
owners were afraid that the
order would cost them part of
their lucrative luncheon
trade, and so they did what
Israelis often do when they
want to fight City Hall —
they took case to the Supreme
Court. After measuring the
decibel level of the outdoor
diners, Justice Aaron Barak
decided that the order was
unreasonable and ordered the
tables reinstated.
This seemingly trivial case
illustrates the central role
that the Israeli Supreme
Court plays in the lives of
ordinary citizens. Members of
Knesset are elected on a na-
tional, at-large basis, and
people thus have no "con-
gressman" of their own to
look into grievances. Nor does
the Knesset act as a meaning-
ful watchdog over the execu-
tive branch. It is the Supreme
Court that fulfills this check-
and-balance function. "In
Israel," says Joshua Schoff-
man, the American-born
legal director of the Associa-
tion for Civil Rights in Israel,
"going directly to Supreme
Court is the primary protec-
tion of the rights of the in-
dividual."
The Court enjoys an extra-
ordinary prestige in a society
that is increasingly dis-
illusioned by its other institu-
tions. Partly this is due to the
non-partisan nature of its
nomination process. Unlike
America, where former politi-
cians like Earl Warren and
Hugo Black have been named
to the Supreme Court, Israeli
justices are picked by a com-
mittee which includes jurists
and members of the national
bar association as well as
politicians. All of the current
11 Justices come from lower
courts, the civil service or the
law faculties of the country's
universities.
The non-partisan nature of
the nominating process has
led to a highly professional,
somewhat anonymous su-
preme court. "There is no real
distinction between the
Shamgar Court and the
Landau Court," says Schoff-
man, referring to the present
Chief Justice and his imme-
diate predecessor. "In Amer-
ica, you can more or less line
up the Justices from left to
right," says Joshua Schoff-
man. "Here, you simply can't
do that."
The main power exercised
by the Chief Justice is the
ability to assign cases. Under
the Israeli system, the full
complement of justices virtu-
ally never hear a case.
Usually panels of three
decide, and the choice of who
they will be is made by the
Chief Justice. "He can't deter-
mine the outcome," says
Nadav Blum, a Jerusalem-
based attorney, "but by choos-
ing the judges, he can often
influence the spirit of the
decision."
If the Supreme Court lacks
a clear ideological bent, it
does tend to be heavily dom-
inated by men (there is
"In America, you
can more or less
line up the
Justices from left
to right. Here you
can't do that."
currently only one woman
Justice) from secular, Euro-
pean backgrounds. "No one
will ever admit that there is
a Sephardi seat on the court,"
said a Jerusalem lawyer.
"But there is." At present, it
is
held by Iraqi-born Avraham
Halima, who is nearing the
compulsory retirement age of
65. And, despite the fact that
the Court often deals with
religious issues, only one
member, Menachem Elan, is
an Orthodox Jew.
Under the Israeli system,
the Supreme Court fulfills
two functions. Like in the U.S.
it hears appeals from lower
courts. But it also acts as the
court of first instance when
citizens have a complaint
against the government or
some other public body. This
form of complaint is known as
a bagatz, a Hebrew acronym
for the High Court of Justice,
and it is the main vehicle by
which the Court makes its
impact felt on the public.
Legal experts agree that
the primary distinction on
the Court is not between
liberals and conservatives,
but between activists and
those less inclined to inter-
vene. The trend is to activism.
"Ten years ago, the court
refused to hear a petition
from a lawyer who wanted to
know why yeshiva student
do not do military service,"
says Blum. "They ruled that