Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumKnesset approves controversial 'Grunis bill'
Bill paves way for Supreme Court Justice Asher Dan Grunis, a conservative judge popular with right-wing politicians, to be named the next court president.
By Haaretz
The Knesset approved on Monday in second and third readings the so-called Grunis bill, which is expected to pave the way for Supreme Court Justice Asher Dan Grunis, a conservative judge popular with right-wing politicians, to be named the next court president.
The bill, initiated by MK Yaakov Katz (National Union), allows judges to assume the court presidency even if they have less than three years to serve before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. The current law restricts such judges from becoming chief justice.
Grunis is seen as a conservative judge who mostly refrains from intervening in decisions made by the executive and legislative branches, and is thus popular with right-wing politicians. But when Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch retires at the end of February 2012, Grunis will be five weeks short of three years from retirement.
Opposition MKs tried to filibuster the bill by conducting lengthy debates on the hundreds of objections filed against it, but the bill was approved after all.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/knesset-approves-controversial-grunis-bill-1.405139
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Seems fairly obscure.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)drive to 'reform' Israel's high courts? I'm surprised
I've never even heard of this person.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)By Yossi Verter
The best way to describe what happened at yesterday's meeting of Likud MKs is that the participants violently and unabashedly attempted to rape Israeli democracy.
A Knesset faction that purports to represent a political party with nationalist and liberal values, headed by the man known as the prime minister of Israel, has nearly reached bottom. If it were up to Benjamin Netanyahu, the faction would have approved supporting an aggressive, destructive bill that Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor referred to as "undemocratic, unconstitutional and unreasonable."
Or as Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar put it: "I have no recollection of anything like this."
The bill seeks to invalidate the results of a properly held democratic election the one held by the Israel Bar Association to choose the two representatives it wants to send to the Judicial Appointments Committee, which selects Supreme Court justices. The only reason for invalidating those results is that someone doesn't like the representatives who were elected.
This is a bill that should never have made its way to the Knesset in the first place. It reached the Likud faction thanks to MKs Yariv Levin and Zeev Elkin, who have made it their duty to undermine the judicial system to the cheers of the far-right extremists in the party.
But Levin and Elkin are just the emissaries of transgression. They represent
Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman. Both have said Neeman sent them on this mission, helped them with the bill and guided them through the legislative process. When they revealed this to their fellow Likud MKs, Netanyahu who was silent as a fish throughout most of the meeting woke up with the justice minister's nickname on his lips, asking: "Where's Yankele? Where's Yankele?"
Netanyahu, it seems, forgot that Neeman is not a Knesset member. At that moment, the justice minister was at a swearing-in ceremony for new judges at the President's Residence. Oh, the shame!
"I'll hear the justice minister's opinion, and then I'll decide," said Netanyahu. Why is he keeping silent?
Of the 27 Likud MKs, just eight spoke up at yesterday's meeting. Levin and Elkin spoke in favor of the bill and the rest, all cabinet ministers, spoke against it: Benny Begin, Michael Eitan, Limor Livnat, Yuval Steinitz, and Meridor and Sa'ar. Steinitz had supported the bill in its previous incarnation, but opposed the current attempt to invalidate the election by retroactively changing the rules of the selection process. Livnat, who opposed the bill last time too, said it was "intolerable."
The scene was so insane that Eitan, resorting to cynicism, said: "Why bother with clauses and subclauses? Let's just write in the law who we want the Israel Bar Association representatives to be."
But is it cynicism? Maybe that's what the next bill will propose.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/likud-s-lowest-point-a-law-unto-themselves-1.405150
oberliner
(58,724 posts)This article seems a tad "in the weeds" so to speak.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Following a slew of criticism from the left and from his own party, PM orders a halt on proceedings regarding the bill which seeks to change the makeup of the Judicial Appointments Committee.
By Jonathan Lis
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Justice Minister Ya'akov Ne'eman and Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to stop any proceedings regarding the bill, which aims to change the makeup of the Judicial Appointments Committee. Netanyahu said he intends to further review the matter.
The bill changing the makeup of the Judicial Appointments Committee is intended to strengthen the weight of the justice minister, Yaakov Neeman, in the committee.
It states that the two Bar Association members of the committee will be elected by a two-thirds majority of the members of the association's national council. This means that instead of two representatives of the Bar Association's coalition on the committee, one member of the coalition and one member of the opposition will be appointed.
Earlier on Wednesday, The Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee succumbed to last-minute pressure on Wednesday and decided to postpone an emergency discussion on whether to pull from the bill from the plenum agenda.
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee had been preparing to bring the bill forward for a second a third reading, when it opted instead to accept Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin's suggestion to bring the issue back for a revote in light of a slew of criticism of the matter. It is extremely rare for a committee to cast a revote on a matter already approved in a first reading.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-freezes-controversial-judicial-appointments-bill-amid-wave-of-criticism-1.405492