Israel's legal/political establishment tensely awaits a Sunday morning decision that could determine the future face of Israel's legal system.
The government's Ministerial Legislative Committee will vote on whether to guarantee government support for a legislative proposal to increase the number of Supreme Court justices from 15 to 18. With four incumbent judges set to retire in the coming two years, the new legislation would mean that seven new judges would be appointed in a relatively short time.
MKs Yariv Levine (Likud) and Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), sponsors of the legislation, say it will enable "more variety in the composition of the Supreme Court, including more judges who come from different backgrounds and hold different world-views. It will also raise the professionalism of the Supreme Court, which will be able to assign judges who are more knowledgeable in specific areas to deal with cases that require a particular expertise."
Not surprisingly, Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch does not support the proposal.
"The current small number of Supreme Court justices enables the Beinisch group to have total control on critical decisions that affect the fate of the State of Israel," said MK Ben-Ari. "Increasing the number of judges will create an opening to bring in new judges who see the State of Israel as a Jewish state."
MK Levine said, "The recent decision allowing Arabs to travel on Route 443 [despite the army's ban on such travel because of terrorist attacks – ed.] proves the need to effect a legislative revolution that will rehabilitate the separation of powers, and that will restore sanity and Zionism to the law system. This bill is the start of that revolution."
The nationalist camp scored a victory of sorts several months ago when one of "its" candidates joined the Court. However, the "price" for this victory was that Justice Uzi Fogelman, with a strong left-wing orientation, also became a Supreme Court judge – and it was Fogelman's ruling that determined the Route 443 decision.