Israel’s Supreme Court — A Professional or Political Institution?

Comparing U.S. and Israel’s supreme courts

The Supreme Court of Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-President Reuven Rivlin (16 January 2015). The swearing-in ceremony of Chief Justice, and Justice Miriam Naor. Image made available on Wikipedia, under this license: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Did you know, that since the year 2000, Israel’s Knesset has made 60 amendments to Israel’s Basic Laws, which are Israel’s quasi-constitution? And these amendments are not just about small details. No! At times the whole system of Israel’s government was impacted by changes, changes that came swiftly, some after deliberations that lasted a mere week.

On Monday, July 24th, 64 Israeli lawmakers, which make up a slim majority in Israel’s 120-member Knesset, amended one of Israel’s Basic Laws, and, in so doing, they took away the Israeli Supreme Court’s ability to strike down government decisions that it finds “unreasonable in the extreme”. WSJ, 7/24/23. By the way, these 64 Israeli legislators comprise Mr. Netanyahu’s entire coalition. No members of the opposition joined in this vote.

As my guests in this episode, Dr. Guy Lurie and Dr. Amir Fuchs, explain, the news media, including our news media here in the U.S., simply exaggerate the application of the unreasonable standard at issue. Israeli Supreme Court’s “unreasonableness standard” is not used for constitutional or policy matters. Rather, it only applies to a narrow category of administrative cases. For example, the hiring and firing of top government officials.