Law and order in Israel: Judicial bill weakens more than its courts

The entire idea of an independent court system is that it doesn’t take its orders from the ruling government of the day.

When Israel was born as a modern Jewish state 75 years ago, its declaration of independence said that “it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

For 75 years those rights and protections under law have been safeguarded by an independent judiciary, a judiciary established by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, for as like in Britain, home of the original Parliament, there is no written constitution in Israel.

But the lack of a governing document in either the U.K. or Israel doesn’t mean that their courts lack integrity and accountability, as courts can be true and impartial without a written constitution. Conversely, even here, home to the world’s oldest written constitution, our highest court’s recent actions have caused many Americans to question it, both on decisions and the ethical behavior of its justices.

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