Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
Justice Minister Ayelet ShakedMinistry spokesperson

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) spoke out against attempts to silence criticism of the Supreme Court.

She began her speech at the Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat by praising the country's judges and the head of the judicial system, Supreme Court Justice Miriam Naor.

However, the remainder of the talk centered around sharp criticism of the Court's rulings, particularly its treatment of the gas outline.

"As Justice Minister I feel I have the right and the duty to criticize the Supreme Court's erroneous ruling," she said. "The decision to cancel the gas outline could turn out to cost billions of shekels."

Shaked stated that "more than the great economic damage, the Supreme Court's decision turned the court into an arena for arbitrating political questions that are supposed to be decided in the voting booth.

"We have reached an absurd situation in which NGOs and Knesset members are the ones petitioning against the gas outline. Instead of dealing with it in the Knesset, they do so through the justice system."

During her talk, Shaked expressed confusion about the Court's reasoning that the outline would limit future governments' actions. "I don't remember why, according to the logic that prevent limited future opinions, the government wasn't prevented from signing the Oslo Accords, which have limited later governments far more. And that was done outside of the legislative process."

The court specifically rejected the gas outline's stability clause, which would prevent any changes to the deal for ten years.