The reasonableness standard is no less important than the Judicial Selection Committee because it will allow the appointment of political government legal advisers, former attorney-general Avichai Mandelblit warned at the 12th annual Israel Bar Association Conference on Monday.
Mandelblit took the podium as part of a line-up of speakers including State Attorney Amit Aisman, Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer Yerushalami and Public Defender Anat Meyassed-Cnaan, all of whom touched upon the challenges of the judicial reform.
The July 24 reasonableness standard law, which restricted the Supreme Court’s ability to engage in judicial review of government and ministerial administrative decisions, would allow the coalition to appoint unreasonable and even corrupt officials, said Mandelblit.
The former attorney-general said that the government no longer needed to split the role of the Attorney-General’s Office into new positions or reduce the powers of government legal advisers, because without the requirement to act reasonably political loyalists could be appointed in their stead. Loyalist State Attorneys and Attorney-Generals could interfere in serious legal cases.
State Prosecutor Amit Eisman at the Israel Bar Associan’s Justice conference in Tel Aviv, September 4, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)“The cancellation of the reason for reasonableness is, therefore, no less serious than the attempt to appoint ‘political’ judges,” said Mandelblit.
Mandelblit said that the independence of the judicial system was a legal “Iron Dome” for Israel on the international stage, both against those that sought to harm the state at international legal forums, and made partners more willing to work with it.
Tomer-Yerushalmi emphasized the importance of the judicial system to national security, emphasizing the importance of operating legally and morally to the IDF, how in real time her office was working to analyze the legality of military actions.
“There are those that say that the Supreme Court hinders the IDF; the opposite is true,” said Tomer-Yerushalmi.
Israeli government pursuing draconian laws – public defender
The government is pursuing not just laws that are damaging to the fundamental values of the country, Public Defender Anat Meyassed-Cnaan charged, but also as also pursuing draconian laws.
Meyassed-Cnaan mentioned the judicial reform proposals as damaging but heaped scorn on proposals for death sentences and expansive powers that allowed searches with minimal legal procedures.
The public defender also raised the alarm about deteriorating conditions in Israeli prisons, in which overcrowding was leaving detainees in some situations sleeping on floors without mattresses.
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