Lapid: Dark forces trying to bulldoze courts
Opposition leader Yair Lapid warned on Monday that “dark forces are trying to bulldoze the courts with a D9 [bulldozer],” at an Israel Democracy Institute videoconference.
Lapid’s speech was unusual in that he not only attacked the current government on some of the more standard political fault lines, but he also went into more serious detail about his views for balancing the judiciary and the legislative branches.
He started by accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of causing many of the issues by “unforgivably and intolerably” refusing to resign despite his indictment and ongoing bribery trial.
The opposition leader said that Netanyahu and his supporters, “instead of stepping on brakes… are slamming down on the accelerator.”
Waxing philosophical, he said that some amount of tension between the courts and the legislature is built into every democracy given their different purposes and way of operating.
“A trial is about aggressively seeking the truth – and it is zero sum – the court cannot announce a tie... It must pick a side,” he said. “Without this, there is no way to run a society.”
In contrast, he said, “the Knesset works the opposite. A good law which was well-considered doesn’t deal with absolute values, but the proper balance between competing and contradictory priorities... Humans aren’t perfect and laws aren’t perfect.”
Warning that, “when the Knesset tries to ignore a court ruling, that is when Israel leaves the definition of a democracy,” he said some politicians try to take such actions under the guise of “a circumvention law or governance,” when really they are bringing about pure “lawlessness.”
Lapid said he thinks the courts can be criticized and can be improved, but that the politicized atmosphere actually prevents this by undermining nuanced approaches.
Also, he said that it would be hard to carry out any judicial reform while the prime minister was fighting for his innocence in a criminal trial.
In terms of nuanced solutions, Lapid recommended that the country and the Knesset set out a structure for how the Knesset and the judiciary should interact regarding Basic Laws.