Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg on Tuesday slammed his fellow justices for their leanings towards invalidating an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary.
In the Tuesday hearing, the 15 Supreme Court justices heard petitions against amendments to the reasonableness standard.
"We need to be faithful to history as well," Sohlberg said while responding to a conversation between the government's representative, Ilan Bombach, and the court's justices. "[David] Ben-Gurion said explicitly that the Declaration of Independence does not have the power to invalidate laws."
"The 37 people who hurriedly signed the Declaration of Independence are not supposed to tie the hands of those who come after them," Bombach told the justices. "The Declaration of Independence is a founding text which is very important to the government, but it has no legal standing."
Justice Anat Baron told Bombach: "Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty refers to the Declaration of Independence, and so does the Nationality Law. So, mister, give respect to this document."
Bombach continued, "There is nothing in the proposed amendment which will harm the identity of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
Justice Ruth Ronnen queried: "And if it did harm?" Bombach responded: "We will not reach a situation in which there is harm."
Justice Ofer Grosskopf asked, "If the Knesset passes a Basic Law which harms the democratic identity, how will the nation express its opinion?"
"It is all reversible, because the will of the nation will be expressed in the elections," Bombach responded.