Today (Thursday) the High Court discussed the petitions against the approval of the maritime border agreement with Lebanon. The hearing, which deals with four petitions, is broadcast live following a request for news here. During the hearing, the President of the Supreme Court, Judge Esther Hayut, reprimanded Knesset member Itamar Ben Gabir, one The petitioners in the hearing against the agreement.
The discussion on the petitions against the gas agreement with Lebanon: President Hayut wondered what MK Ben Gabir is basing his claim that the negotiations were resumed after the dissolution of the Knesset. State representative: The negotiations have been going on for about a year. The judges made it difficult for the petitioners#The evening news@almog_tamar pic.twitter.com/DmXsShfGFK
— here news (@kann_news) October 20, 2022
Ben Gvir claimed before the Supreme Court that the negotiations with Lebanon ended a month after it was known that Israel was going to the elections. The President of the Supreme Court responded to him after he did not answer when the negotiations stopped. “Sir, are you claiming that there was no negotiation until June 2022? What is it if, sir, you assert something and then ask if it is true? Got a reference?”
According to Ben Gvir, the agreement is a very problematic abduction. The member of the Knesset argued against the claim that it was a confidential matter, and as evidence he explained that the ombudsman herself did not claim that it was impossible to bring the agreement to the Knesset for reasons of confidentiality.
Judge Noam Solberg told him that he was in a hurry to come to court before exhausting his steps in the Knesset. Ben Gvir replied that the Knesset is not working and therefore it is less able to supervise. Ben Gvir also claimed that if the agreement is secret, then why did Prime Minister Lapid invite Galon, who is not an MK, to a security review, while serving MKs cannot hear anything secret.
The discussion focused on the question of whether a transitional government could sign such an agreement very close to the elections, on the question of whether the Basic Law of Referendum should be applied to it and whether it should be brought to the Knesset for approval. The petitioners against the agreement are the Kohlat Forum, Lavi, MK Itamar Ben Gabir and a fourth petition of dozens of petitioners.
Ahead of the debate, the state said yesterday that weighty security, political, economic and energy reasons justify approving the agreement even before the elections without the approval of the Knesset.
The state stated that the negotiations continued for years by different governments even during elections. According to the state, due to reasons of urgency and vitality, there is justification to exercise the window of opportunity and ratify the agreement with Lebanon without delay. The petitions were submitted by the Ecclesiastical Forum, the Lavi organization and Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir.
Meanwhile, this week it was reported on the Lebanese news site “Al-Ehad” that the ceremony for signing the maritime border agreement with Lebanon at the UN headquarters will not include a meeting of the two sides. According to the report, the meeting in Naqura next week will not be around a common table and there will be no photo In addition, each side will sign a different document, to avoid any aspect of normalization with Israel.