Netanyahu and the President of the Supreme Court are alive. Will you enact an increase clause of 61? (Mark Israel Salem, Paul)
Dozens of lecturers and members of the academic staff at the various law faculties came out today (Sunday) against the passage of the overriding clause, according to the current format in which only 61 members of the Knesset are required to overrule Supreme Court rulings.
The declaration of opinion against the superseding clause reads: “The undersigned have different positions regarding the superseding clause in Israel’s constitutional framework. However, all of us, without exception, wish to warn that the superseding clause in the format published in the media (general application to all rights, unlimited activation in the majority of 61 members of the Knesset), will seriously damage the protection of human rights in Israel and will be a lament for generations.”
According to dozens of jurists, “If the proposed enhancement clause is enacted, the Knesset, with a majority of 61 Knesset members, will be able to immunize any law that violates human rights from constitutional review by the High Court, and also retroactively cancel any High Court ruling that states that a law is void due to serious injury in individual rights”.
The jurists wrote that “Such a superseding clause would make it possible to violate any human right, even the most basic, without any restriction. For example, the Knesset, through a simple coalition majority, could limitlessly violate the right to dignity, impose movement restrictions or conduct surveillance without any effective legal supervision, prohibit Demonstrations, harm the freedom of religion or freedom of religion or gender equality in all its aspects, and this without any effective judicial review.”
“In fact, the superseding clause will transform the citizens of Israel from citizens with rights, whom the Knesset must respect and the court protects, to those who are subject to the mercy of the political majority at any given moment.”
The 126 jurists concluded their remarks by saying that “contrary to what is sometimes heard in the public discourse, the use of override mechanisms is extremely rare in the world, and we are not familiar with an arrangement that comprehensively overrides all rights, without other mechanisms that guarantee the protection of human rights, in any democratic country.”
Among the signatories of the petition can be seen prominent jurists, including the former rector of the Hebrew University Prof. Barak Medina, the former national public defender Prof. Yoav Sapir, the deputy dean at Reichman University Prof. Yaniv Roznai, Prof. Yifat Biton who took part in the parties “Gesher” and ” Democratic Israel” and more.
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