Amendments to selecting judges in Israel: The Starting Point

I thought it might be instructive to bring to you the very first Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee meeting in which amendments to law designating how justices are selected for the courts in Israel. I am translating the opening statement by Committee Chair, Simcha Rotman, edited slightly for clarity in English. And then I will present a number of comments from committee members.

Simcha Rotman opens the session

Good morning to all the guests, good morning to the teams, good morning, Member of the Knesset, I am happy to open the meeting of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, today, 29 Tevet 5783 [22Jan2023]. The subject of the meeting: "Zion shall be redeemed by justice" [Isaiah 1:27] -- returning justice to the justice system. The subject of the meeting: a bill submitted by the committee - Basic Law: Judiciary (amendment -- strengthening the separation of powers). Before I start and ask to speak, first of all I want to thank all the guests who came, they are all important, each according to their merits. . . . I'll also say, especially to Prof. Israel Aumann, whose many degrees - for each degree I know I'll get called out when I mention them, so I won't say all of them, but I will say: Nobel laureate, who came here for the discussions that took place regarding . . .  what was called the Sa'ar Law, which changed the majority required in the committee for [judicial] appointment[s] to the Supreme Court. And his expertise in game theory is, of course, very relevant to an arena in which he, unfortunately, does not play at all - the relationships among the authorities in Israel, the power relations within the committee for selecting judges, outside the committee for selecting judges. But I think it really might have been more appropriate to call it the Prisoner's Dilemma in this context. I thank him very much for coming, honouring us with his presence, and we will hear from him today. At the start, since this is the first meeting that deals with the subject of the Basic Law: Judiciary . .  . I want to refer to two events, one of which does not affect the committee's deliberations, and the other somewhat affects the committee's deliberations. The one that does not affect the committee's deliberations is the ruling in the Aryeh Deri matter. It does not affect the committee's deliberations for a very simple reason: the plan, including today's schedule and the schedule for the continuation of the discussions, was prepared, tabled, and presented long before the verdict. And the problems that this verdict represents are known to all of us long before the verdict was given. Therefore, it will not influence the committee's deliberations. When we presented our plan in the Religious Zionist Party, we addressed the issue of the court's intervention in the ministerial appointment without any connection and without knowing whether it would be submitted to the High Court, what the High Court's verdict would be, etc. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, when he held his press conference and presented his plan, he also did not know what the verdict would be and what effect it would have. And in this context, there is really nothing new in this ruling. You can discuss and debate the various analyses, you can argue with them, you can criticize them, but it really doesn't matter. And this shouldn't affect the committee's deliberations, and it won't either. The [purpose] is clear, we are coming to do a very important act of restoring sovereignty to the people, which does not depend on this or that decision of the court. I will say that we received another reminder, and again, in this context, there is nothing special about it, a reminder that we are dealing here with the enactment of basic laws, and the original version of the basic laws has been forgotten by some of the citizens of the State of Israel who sit on the throne of judgment. Basic Law: The Government, Section 3, states that the government serves by virtue of the Knesset's trust. There are people who are confused and think that the government should serve by virtue of the trust of the court, or by virtue of the trust of the Attorney General, or all kinds of other parties from which they need to earn their trust in order to establish a government in Israel. Basic Law: The government determines otherwise. And this issue is a most important jurisdictional issue. . ..