The Chief Economist of the Ecclesiastical Forum, Dr. Michael Sharal, supports legal reform, but warns against the political and economic consequences of the reform as it is currently being promoted. Sharal supports a compromise that “will correct the serious flaws in the system of checks and balances in the current regime in Israel, without significant exposure to future damage in the nature of the regime”.
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Dr. Sharel, the chief economist of Kehalat and who leads the Kehalat Economic Forum, published a letter this morning (Wednesday) warning against the constitutional and economic consequences of the legal reform as it is currently proposed by the coalition.
Amendments to the legislation as part of the legal reform:
● Changing the composition of the committee for the selection of judges so that the coalition controls the appointments – Approved on first reading
● The candidates for the Supreme will appear before the Constitution Committee – Approved on first reading
● High Court judges will not be able to invalidate fundamental laws – Approved on first reading
● In order to invalidate a law, the agreement of 12 out of 15 High Court judges will be required – Approved for first reading
● A superseding clause will allow the Knesset to re-enact a law that was invalidated by a majority of 61 MKs – Approved for first reading
● The court will not be able to pass judicial review on the appointment of ministers – Confirmed in advance reading
● The court will not be able to invalidate the decisions of the government and elected officials due to the reason of reasonableness – In the debates in the Constitution Committee before the first reading
● Legal advice to the government will not be binding. Ministers will be able to appoint advisers on their behalf – Not currently promoted
Dr. Sharal previously served as the Chief Economist of the Ministry of Finance and the Chief Economist of the Harel Group. Sharal previously resigned from the Ministry of Finance in protest of the “0 VAT” policy of then Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, and he is considered to be of equal mind and heart.
In the letter, Dr. Sheral speaks in praise of liberal democracy, which includes a tough separation of powers aimed at protecting human rights. “The birth of the theory of separation of powers marked the transition from the barbaric use of power in authoritarian societies to the civilized exercise of power in democratic-liberal societies. Separation of powers rests on a political-legal relationship between the branches of government, characterized by checks and balances that prevent abuse of power by one branch of government,” he writes.
“The specific proposed reform is not the one required”
Sharel does not doubt that there is currently a problem stemming from excessive legal activism: “The supporters of the proposed legal reform are right in their criticism of the flaws in the system of checks and balances in the current regime in Israel. They are also right in that they place the main blame for these flaws on the judicial activism that has developed in Israel in recent decades.”
In his eyes, the current situation, in which the judicial system has the right of veto over any activity of the government, is bad and problematic. He finds great flaws in the majority of judges and lawyers in the committee for selecting judges, in the lack of limitation of the right to appear before the Supreme Court, in the High Court’s unilateral declaration of a constitution for Israel, in the rejection of legitimate administrative decisions and excessive power to the Attorney General.
However, in Sharel’s eyes, “the specific proposed reform is not the one that is required. The proposed reform will create a situation in which there will be no separation between the authorities, by subjecting the judicial system to the will of the coalition.”
According to him, “the coalition could, through the ministers of the government, ignore the advice of the legal advisors and promote policy measures at will. This proposal could be reasonable and even very desirable, but only when at the same time there is an independent and powerful court. However, according to the proposed reform, this will not be the case “.
“Almost unlimited power for the coalition”
In addition, Sharel is also afraid of the coalition’s automatic majority for the committee to select judges.
In the eyes of Sharel, “the proposed reform gives almost unlimited power to the coalition. The reform currently being promoted raises in my mind the fear that any coalition, in the present or in the future, will significantly erode the principles of representative democracy. When there is no separation of powers, and the coalition is given almost unlimited power, it is likely that it She will want to use this power in order to increase the chances of her political survival.”
Dr. Sheral fears restrictions on free election campaigning and the appointment of an election committee friendly to the coalition that will determine election procedures and vote counting that will benefit it – and worse: “To disqualify parties or different people from running in the elections, to punish overly vocal critics of the government, and to silence media outlets that spread negative information Or pessimistic about the state of the economy and the country.”
He says that “a democratic regime in which the government represents the opinion of the majority of the public, but does not have a proper separation of powers, will have difficulty surviving over time in its democratic form. It is no accident that the saying ‘Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely’ has become accepted in political philosophy and political science.”
The damage to the economy will precede the damage to democracy
In his eyes, the economic consequences of the reform are secondary compared to the effects of the regimes, but “if the reform paves the way for severe damage to liberal democracy, in the medium term there will also be severe damage to the economy. Moreover, since investors’ and consumers’ expectations about the future affect the economy already in the present, the damage to the economy is expected advance the damage to democracy.”
But all this does not mean that in his eyes there is no need for legal reform – simply not the reform currently proposed by the government. In his eyes, a good reform will result in “governance increasing, the political conflict between the camps will moderate, the power struggles between the authorities will subside, the rule of law will be strengthened, and business certainty will be improved. All of these will lead to very good results on the economic level as well and will contribute to economic and social prosperity.”
Sharel also says that “the Kehalat Forum, of which I am a part, works to secure the future of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, to strengthen representative democracy, to expand individual freedoms, and to deepen the principles of the free market. In this context, it is important to avoid harming liberal democracy, which will ultimately lead to to harm individual freedoms and to weaken representative democracy.”
Sharel points out that in his eyes, “a very large majority of those who support legal reform are interested in preserving the democratic-liberal regime in the State of Israel”, and therefore he supports a compromise on the legal issue – whether it be in actual agreement with the opposition, or if it is passed as a milder reform by the coalition: “Compromise which removes the idea of the superseding clause from the reform, which gives the opposition more power in the committee for the appointment of judges, and which requires a tougher procedure for passing basic laws or amending them. The proposed reform can certainly be improved in this spirit, either with broad agreement in the Knesset or unilaterally by the coalition.” .
“The economists’ warnings are not political but professional”
The Economists’ Forum made a statement in response to the words of Dr. Michael Sharel, the Chief Economist of the Kohalat Forum: “The coup d’état is causing enormous damage to Israel’s economy. The economic damage is severe and is expected to intensify significantly if the legislation in the Knesset is completed.
“The economists congratulate Dr. Michael Sheral, the senior economist of the Kehalat Forum, who joined the hundreds of economists, in Israel and around the world, the rating companies, international organizations, investors and high-tech people, who have been warning for months about the unprecedented damage to the economy.
“Furthermore, Dr. Sharel’s warnings indicate that the economists’ warnings are not political, but pure professional warnings, and ignoring them could degenerate the Israeli economy into the abyss.”