Justice minister: High Court won’t decide future of settlement enterprise

The Justice Ministry “won’t allow left-wing organizations to set facts on the ground by dragging the court into the political sphere,” Ayelet Shaked says • “Government wants to hit the gas, the judiciary keeps hitting the brakes,” housing minister says.

ISRAEL HAYOM

The High Court of Justice won’t decide the future of the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise,” Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Tuesday, adding her officer “will not allow left-wing organizations to set facts on the ground by dragging the court into the political sphere.”

Speaking at a Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem, Shaked said that “the Left can’t win the election so they [left-wing groups] file hundreds of nuisance petitions with the court every year, effectively waging lawfare against the Israeli government. We won’t be a party to it.”

She stressed that the “government aims to bolster the settlement enterprise,” adding that when it comes to petitions concerning this issue,

“The State Attorney’s Office represents the state – not the personal opinion of an individual attorney, certainly not on an issue that is part of the government’s core operations.”

The government, Shaked said, “is stable, and it will make it to 2019,” when the next general elections are scheduled to take place.

Construction Minister Yoav Gallant, who also addressed the Kohelet forum on Tuesday, slammed the judiciary for trying to “undermine the government.”

“The ongoing judicialization [of politics] weakens the political echelon while empowering the bureaucratic echelon, which could eventually undercut democracy,” he said.

“Under the current situation, the biggest criminal has the right to voice his position, but the government and its ministers don’t have that right. What tools allow judges to know better than military officials?

“The Supreme Court is not free of populism. It’s inconceivable that the Supreme Court knows more about security, energy, and housing than the executive branch. The government wants to hit the gas, but the judiciary keeps hitting the brakes,” he said.