Prime Minister Shaked? ‘Anything’s possible’
Justice Minister doesn’t rule out action to restrict judicial power. ‘If the judges don’t do it themselves, the Knesset may have to act.’
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) is not ruling out the possibility that the Knesset will need to restrict the the power of the judicial system and the right to file suit, in light of the fact that the courts in Israel have started to rule on security and other matters which ought to be determined by elected officials in the Knesset and government.
In an interview with “Orech Hadin,” the newspaper of the Israeli Bar Association, Shaked emphasized that “not everything is subject to adjudication, and the land is not filled with law,” challenging the well-known dictum of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak. “There are matters related to security and economics which need to be determined not in courts, but in the Knesset and government. Even when the district attorney or attorney general is dealing with investigations of some form or another, we need to let them finish them and not let someone file a petition, and if they petition in the middle of an investigation, they need to be booted out.”
“As of now, the judges have the final say. The judges developed this fact gradually. They opened the gates to everyone and to every issue. I think that it would be correct to restrict in some form the right to file suit, and the best would be for the judges to do this themselves…and yes, if this doesn’t happen, maybe the Knesset will have to intervene.”
Shaked related to the method practiced in Israel of choosing supreme court judges based on “seniority,” according to which the longest serving judges on the court are appointed to chief justice and deputy chief justice positions.
“No less problematic is this unprecedented matter,” she said. “In no other system do they choose the head of the system according to his seniority. It doesn’t exist. Not in the police, not in the district attorney’s office, not in the government. In my opinion, the person who needs to head the court is the most talented one, both from a legal perspective and a management perspective, but I have yet to decide on this matter, and it is indeed worthy of public debate.”
On the possibility of serving in the future as Prime Minister, she said, “ I don’t know…you know how life is very surprising. Nobody, not even me, thought that at age 40 I would be the Justice Minister of the State of Israel, therefore I think that anything is possible and everything is open.”
“With that, if you ask me today, I think that after Binyamin Netanyahu the most fitting person to serve as Prime Minister is Naftali Bennett…You ask if I want to serve another term as Justice Minister? Then the answer is yes indeed. I would be happy to.”
On the criticism over her appointment as Justice Minister at the beginning of her term she said, “I think those statements disappeared quickly from the public discourse, but above all, the raising of eyebrows was because I’m young, because I’m a woman, and because I’m right-wing.”
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