Israel's Supreme Court
Israel's Supreme CourtFlash 90

The Commissioner for the Representation of the Knesset in Courts, Adv. Avital Sompolinsky, submitted to the Supreme Court the Knesset's response to the 15 petitions filed against the Basic Law of Nationality.

According to the report in Globes, as part of the response, the Knesset in fact denies the Supreme Court's authority to hear the body of the petitions, claiming it lacks legal authority to do so.

"In accordance with Israeli constitutional law, the Honorable Court has no source of authority to exercise substantive constitutional judicial review of Basic Laws in general, and of the Basic Law: Nationality, in particular," Sompolinsky states.

The Knesset response also states that the Supreme Court's authority to exercise judicial review of basic laws is not enshrined in the Basic Laws - neither explicitly nor implicitly.

"Therefore, accepting the petitioners' claim will lead to a serious violation of the principle of separation of powers and the rule of law, and it contradicts the legal basis on which the Court's authority to exercise constitutional review of 'ordinary' laws of the Knesset is anchored," she added.

Sompolinsky stressed that the petitions should also be rejected in substance "in the Basic Law: Nationality to change the character of the State as a 'Jewish and democratic state'," but the Knesset does not believe these claims should be examined in substance, "the petitions should be rejected outright at an earlier stage."