When justices strike down a law, the Knesset will be able to undo their ruling with a 61-seat majority, says MK Shaked’s bill.
By Ido Ben Porat, Gil Ronen, INN
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved on Sunday a bill submitted by MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) that would enable the Knesset to override a High Court decision to strike down a law it had previously legislated.
The bill would add a clause to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom, allowing the re-legislation of laws annulled by the High Court, with a 61-seat majority. The clause would be added to the Basic Law as a temporary order for a period of four years.
Immediately following the decision by the Ministerial Committee, which decides which bills will receive the coalition’s support, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni – who is the committee’s chairman – filed an appeal against it. This means that the legislation process will be frozen until the entire government discusses the bill and approves it.
The bill was submitted in the wake of the High Court decision to strike down the Infiltrators’ Law, which the Knesset passed in order to combat the flood of illegal immigrants that has plagued working-class neighborhoods. MK Shaked noted that in writing the minority opinion in the decision, Supreme Court President Asher Grunis implored his fellow judges not to create a crisis with the government and Knesset “by taking the reins of legislation into their hands.”
Shaked opined that “if there is a substantial disagreement between appointed judges and elected officials, on whether a certain law is appropriate for the country’s values or not, and whether it is proportional or not, it is proper that the values of the public will decide and have precedence.”
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) praised the committee’s decision and said that “The Knesset and the government are the sovereign power in Israel, and MK Shaked’s bill brings back the principle of separation of authorities from the civics lessons to reality.
Allowing African infiltrators to enter Israel freely is “dangerous for security as well as democracy,” Bennett added.
Minister Uri Orbach, also of Jewish Home, said that “a bad law by a legislator is better than a good law by a judge, only because [the legislator] is an elected official and is sovereign.”
@ keelie:
I hate that expression.
@ mar55:
It’s a recognizable and large enough target that a Target bulls-eye is unnecessary.
The UN only serves those who want it and that’s America and Britain mostly, It’s their fig leaf.
@ ArnoldHarris:
My take is that the religious Zionists are suspicious of him but he has brought results they could only dream of in creating the base of a truly National party. Of course to do that he has to dilute the orthodx Zionist message to a degree but for now they are living with it as long as his polling numbers stay high. Some will carp from the right but they are for now biting the bullet.
For us there is no other viable option at the moment and I can see a merger of some of the Likud and Bennett in the future….
Look for BB to call a quick snap election hoping to thwart readiness of the opposition and he will do so if he thinks he can get away with the ploy… Iffy at this moment.
@ yamit82:
Thank you. We should paint the symbol of the Tatget Stores in front of the building and let the forces of our planes use them as target practice. It will take care of the vermin inside.
@ ArnoldHarris:
He most certainly is. Salt of the earth…
I go for your Possible Explanation 3. We don’t need them to love the Jews, only fear them…
@ mar55:
This is what I think of the UN.
@ yamit82:
Yamit, if I were anywhere close to that good, then Ted — or possibly his whiz-bang automated blog software — would slap me into moderation at least half as often as they do to you. (He sounds like a genuinely nice guy, so I’ll give him the benefit of doubt and blame on his software.)
Where does Bennett stand with the Zionist-oriented religious parties and the rest of the nationalists outside of haLikud? Could he in fact send Netanyahu into a new career doing something other than pretending to lead the Jewish State of Israel in the direction that Vladimir Jabotinsky, Israel Eldad, Yitzchak Shamir and even David Ben-Gurion would have recorgzied as true Zionist leadership?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ ArnoldHarris:
Arnold this is the bestest posted comment you ever made.
I love it.
More of the same pls.
@ yamit82:
(Possible explanation 1:)
Obama suggested to Kerry and his foreign policy pickle-brains that all of them should plan a simultaneous visit to Israpundit, with a view to getting it jammed on the Internet.
(Possible explanation 2:)
Your imagination is seeing ghosts in large numbers.
(Possible explanation 3:)
Significant elements of the English-language civilizational cultures are beginning to tune in on Ted Belman for clues as to what us Jews really think about people trying to shove us around in efforts to appease all the gangs of Islamic and Nazi zombies. Maybe they think our folks will incinerate all the great old cities of Europe if they fuck with us one time too many.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Ted I noticed that for a brief moment you had 70 visitors at once on your site… I think that could be a record.
@ yamit82:
Great, it is about time. Ms. Ayelet Shaket has come with this law just when it was most needed. Chain the lefties then put them where they cannot cause anymore harm.
This is really big.
It clips some to the power of the court which the Knesset had abdicated.
the left is going to go Bananas.
Its common sense.
Voters can remove legislators if they do not like a law. They cannot remove judges for making bad policy decisions.
That’s the way it should be.