Significant support for legal reform: 120 professors from all the universities are launching a petition in support of the legal reform promoted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the chair of the Constitutional Committee MK Simcha Rothman.
The petition states that “comprehensive reform of the judicial system is essential due to the constitutional revolution led by Prof. Aharon Barak, which disturbed the balance between the authorities in Israel.”
According to the signatories, “the violation of the balance between the authorities and the strengthening of the power of the court were done through various tools: judicial review of primary legislation and in particular its extension even to basic laws, the extension of the right to stand, the extension of the doctrine of justice, the extension of the use of the reason of reasonableness, the use of a purposive and objective interpretation, and the strengthening Multiplicity of the powers of the ombudsmen. All of these accumulated to the rule of an excessive violation of the aforementioned balance.”
They also point out that “the legislative procedures in Israel give great scope for discussion, precision and persuasion. The requested place for discussing the details of the reform is the Knesset of Israel and substantive discussions should be held in it between the supporters of the reform and its opponents as is customary.”
At the end of the discussion, the professors write that the reform should be carried out through negotiations but not harm the process “As much as possible, it is good to hold negotiations and strive for broad agreements, but one must not harm the essential process of correcting the judicial system, which in recent years has greatly overstepped the limits of the other authorities.”
Among the signatories can be found Israel Prize winner Professor Israel Oman, Bar Ilan University Rector Prof. Amnon Albek, former University Rector Prof. Yossi Yeshuron, Prof. Amos Altshuler, former member of the Higher Education Council, many physicists, mathematicians and computer science professors from the Weizmann and Mann Institute The Technion as well as researchers and senior officials from Haifa, Bar Ilan, Hebrew, Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion universities.
The organizers of the petition note that this is only a first list and in the coming days more academics are expected to join the list who want to express their support for the process.
The professors’ petition joins a long list of legal professionals who support the legal reform currently promoted by Levin and Rothman. The calls come after a long period in which the voices of the opponents of the reform were mainly heard.
In the meantime, in recent weeks, an extensive billboard campaign has gone up with a call to Levin and Rothman to continue promoting the legal reform, and to work to promote the will of the voters who elected them.
Earlier this week, several signs of the reform support campaign were vandalized in the Kfar Saba area, Givatayim and other cities.
Berla Crombie, who is behind the campaign, condemned the vandalism of the signs. “The enlightened left in its own eyes continues to behave violently against any support for changing the legal system and correcting the Israeli legal system. What we are seeing in recent days is an increase in violence, we are receiving dozens of documents and testimonies from citizens from all over the country about the vandalism of the signs. We are not giving up, And wherever signs of support for the reform were vandalized – we will go up with new signs and we will also add hundreds more signs of support at other points and in other places.”