In an email letter to a friend of his at Yale University, Barak explained that though he lost his bid this week to revoke the law, he feels it's just a matter of time before a High Court majority is found to do so.
The Supreme Court ruled this week, by a narrow 6-5 margin, that the State may continue to prevent Arabs of the Hamas Authority who married Israeli-Arabs from receiving automatic Israeli citizenship. The legislation in question is a temporary measure that is scheduled to expire two months from now in any event. It states that PA Arabs shall not receive automatic Israeli citizenship merely for having married Israeli-Arabs. Many of the marriages in question are fictitious affairs, designed merely to allow the PA Arab freedom of movement and other basic rights of Israelis.
The majority opinion upholding the law was written by Supreme Court Justice Mishael Heshin [pictured, on left], and the minority opinion was authored by Chief Justice Barak [right].
In the email, first revealed by Haaretz newspaper, Barak explained that the majority vote against his position was provided by Justice Edmond Levy. Levy agreed with Barak on the two main issues, Barak wrote - namely, that the right to live as a family is a constitutional one, and that the security dangers are not proportional to the damage caused by restricting this right. However, Levy voted not to revoke the law because the Knesset in any event will have to re-legislate it in two months, upon the law's expiration.
Eleven percent of Palestinians involved in terrorist activities entered the country as part of the family reunification law before it was changed, Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet security forces, told a Knesset committee last year.
In another way of looking at the same situation, State representatives told the Court that 20% of those who received Israeli citizenship in the family reunification framework were involved in terrorist activity.
In addition, Barak wrote, three other justices agreed that the right to live with one's family is a fundamental one, but felt that the security dangers outweighed it. He therefore wrote to his unnamed friend that though he suffered a "technical loss," in essence, "I have a majority for my opinions on the Supreme Court."
"If the Parliament [Knesset] attempts to legislate this law without changes, according to the Supreme Court's position the law will be unconstitutional," Barak wrote.
Barak has long and widely been accused of extra-zealous activism in promoting a left-wing, secularist agenda.
A three-justice panel he headed just this week dealt yet another blow to the religious establishment by ruling that a Rabbinical Court ruling - forcing a couple to divorce because the wife had committed adultery - was unacceptable because evidence had been obtained illegally.
Former Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said this week, "The Supreme Court, with its increasing involvement in issues that it never dealt with before, and because of the lack of balance within it, has become a political force." He further criticized the manner in which High Court judges are chosen, perpetuating the world-view of Chief Justice Barak. "We see signs of 'judicial cloning,'" Landau said.
The Land of Israel Legal Forum termed the contents of Barak's email to his friend "a danger to democracy."