The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a clause of a duly-passed Knesset law was unacceptable, and deemed it null and void.

The clause in question allows a court to extend a suspect's incarceration even when he is not present in court. The Supreme Court ruled that such a clause clashes with the suspect's civil rights, and is therefore null. The clause has mainly been used for Arab terrorists.

Many MKs criticized the decision.

MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari said, "I also don't like that clause in the law, and I agree that it should be revoked – but not by the Supreme Court. The Court should not nullify duly-passed Knesset laws. We are witness to a superiority complex on the part of the Supreme Court judges. Laws must be made or revoked by a body of popularly elected officials, and not by a handful of judges who share the same opinions."

MK Yaakov Katz, leader of the National Union party, agreed, and added, "We have proposed legislation that will specify that only the people, via their elected representatives, can change laws. The representatives see before them considerations such as local security needs, and not just the universal values that guide the judges."

"If a terrorist were to take advantage of these so-called proportionate rights granted him by the Supreme Court judges, leading to death or injury of an Israeli citizen," Ketzaleh continued, "we won't be able to come to one of the Supreme Court judges, who were never elected and never had to take responsibility for their decisions."

The Almagor Terrorist Victim Organization released a statement of criticism of the decision itself: "This will turn terrorist interrogations into a farce. It will enable terrorists to take a breather in the middle of their interrogations and spend some time with the compassionate judges of Israel, together with their clever lawyers, even when they have information on 'ticking time bombs' [imminent terrorist attacks]. The terrorists will thus be able to gain precious time, enabling their colleagues to carry out the next attack or kidnapping."

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin (Likud) said, "The Knesset must define ways to deal with the issue of revoking laws. The Knesset has entrusted the Supreme Court with the right to nullify legislation, without completing the process, and without establishing its own authority to act in the face of such nullification. Therefore, as quickly as possible, the legislative process must be completed and a way in which the Knesset can act in these cases must be defined." 

MK David Rotem (Israel Our Home), chairman of the Knesset Law and Constitution Committee, said, "This ruling by the Supreme Court is a grave error. The clause in question is activated in only a few isolated cases each year, and it is unfortunate that for this, the Court brought about a perceived affront to the legislative process."

MK Aryeh Eldad: "Whether or not this particular decision was correct or not, we must certainly work to speed up legislation that will prevent or impede the Supreme Court from nullifying laws."