Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Are you Happy about Ayelet Shaked as Israeli Justice Minister?

כ"ג לחודש השני תשע"ה

PM Bibi Netanyahu
Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home Party) was appointed to be the new Minister of Justice as part of the coalition agreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jewish Home Party Head Naftali Bennet.

To those of you who are all excited about Ayelet Shaked ascending to this position, I have a question for you. But, first, read the following news report from this afternoon.
YNET: ח"כ שקד: "גאה בבית המשפט העליון; הוא מהמובילים בעולם ושופטיו מצוינים"12.05.15 
שרת המשפטים המיועדת איילת שקד נפגשה עם שר המשפטים של רומניה רוברט קזנצ'וק. במסגרת הפגישה אמרה: "אצלנו, בניגוד אליכם ולמדינות אחרות, אין בית משפט חוקתי, אלא בית משפט עליון בלבד. אנחנו גאים בבית המשפט העליון שלנו, הוא מהמובילים בעולם ושופטיו מצוינים".

היא הוסיפה: "כרגע ניטש ויכוח בין המצדדים באסכולה הקונסרבטיבית לזו האקטיביסטית, בכל הקשור להתערבות בית המשפט העליון בהחלטות הכנסת. כשרת משפטים וראשת הוועדה למינויי שופטים, אעדיף את הגישה הקונסרבטיבית". 
(מורן אזולאי)
Esser Agaroth (2¢) Translation:
YNET: MK Shaked: "proud of our Supreme Court, it is one of leading [courts] in the world and its judges are excellent."
May 12, 2015 
Minister of Justice designate Ayelet Shaked met with the Minister of Justice of Romania Robert Kazenchok. Within the framework of the meeting, she said: "For us, as opposed to you and to other countries, there is no Constitutional Court, but only the Supreme Court. We are proud of our Supreme Court, it is one of leading [courts] in the world and its judges are excellent.
She added: "Currently there has been a debate between the proponents of the conservative school and the activist school, regarding the intervention of the Supreme Court in the decisions of the Knesset. As Justice minister and head of a committee appointments of judges, I prefer the Conservative approach." 
(Moran Azulay)
Translation corrected with the help of DC and Washington (comment below)

Esser Agaroth (2¢)
MK Naftali Bennett
So, now that you have read the above news report, here's my question:

Are you still happy about MK Shaked's appointment?

Although Shaked seems to have the right idea about the Israeli Supreme Court's notorious legislation from the Bench, how on earth could she say that she is proud of it?

How could she call its leftist, interventionist judges "excellent?"

Seriously?

And, now, it looks like Prime Minister Netanayu is interested in "expanding" the government's coalition.

But, with whom?

Leftist Lieberman (Yisra'el Beteinu)?

Leftist Lapid (Yesh Atid)?

Leftists Livni and Herzog (Zionist Camp)?

You are all well on the way to getting what you voted for: A left-wing government.

Don't try to fool yourselves. It's the same as we always get.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A point on the translation of the article:

"Currently there has been a debate between the proponents of that school of Conservative activist"

It should read "proponents of the conservative school and the activist school".

As far as Shaked herself is concerned, her praise of the Supreme Court was either a) naivete, though that's unlikely given how well publicized the court's odiousness is, b) trying to be professional and patriotic in the face of all the criticism, c) a combination of the two.

She's definitely going to be far from perfect, but I'd much rather have her in charge than Livni. The Justice Ministry has been used and abused by some of Israel's worst, including Yossi Beilin. She won't be a Daniel Friedmann, but she's definitely better than 90% of the people who've run the ministry.

Esser Agaroth said...

DC & Jerusalem,

Thanks for your correction of my translation. I was in a hurry, so I used Google, and didn't proof read very well.

Shame on me. :-/

Better than Livni or Beilin? Not necessarily. Livni and Beilin were a lot more easy to see through.

It always seems to be the so-called right which gives away land. This makes me suspicious of any government.

My judgment is still out on Shaked. But, you do make good points about possible motivations behind her statements.