The academics’ petition in favor of the legal reform is expanding: after last week an ad was published with 100 professors, this morning (Friday) another list of 100 more signatories was published. The petition has so far been signed by 200 professors from all universities in Israel and hundreds of other academics have expressed support for the petition.
The petition signed by the professors reads: “Comprehensive reform of the judicial system is essential due to the constitutional revolution led by Prof. Aharon Barak which upset 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 criticism of primary legislation and in particular its extension even to basic laws, the extension of the right to stand, the extension of the judicial doctrine, the extension of the use of the reason of reasonableness, the use of a purposive and objective interpretation, and the multiple strengthening of the prosecutors’ powers.
The petition also states 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 Israeli Knesset and there should be substantive discussions between the supporters of the reform and its opponents as is customary.” At the end of the session, the signatories state that the reform must be carried out through negotiations but not to damage the process: “As much as possible, it is good to hold negotiations and strive for broad agreements, but it is not allowed to damage the essential process of correcting the judicial system, which in recent years has greatly overstepped the limits of the other authorities.”
Among the signatories of the petition can be found Israel Prize Laureate and Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Israel Oman, Bar Ilan University Rector Prof. Amnon Albek, former Bar Ilan University Rector Prof. Yossi Yeshuron, Prof. Amos Altshuler former member of the Higher Education Council, Hatani Israel Prize in Mathematics – David Kashdan and Yosef Bernstein.
Winner of the Israel Prize in Israel Thought – Yehuda Leibs. Winner of the Israel Prize in Literature – Meir Sternberg, many physicists, mathematicians and computer science professors from the Weizmann Institute and the Technion, researchers and executives from Haifa University, Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University and other professors.
The broad support for the reform in the academy comes after a long period in which only the voices of the opponents of the reform were heard, and now the voice of the many supporters of the movement is also beginning to be heard. The organizers of the petition state that this is a preliminary list and there are other academics, professors and doctors who are going to join later in support.