Rivlin blasts Edelstein for defying High Court decision
‘We must ensure the rules of democracy’
President Reuven Rivlin blasted Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Wednesday night for defying a ruling by the High Court of Justice to allow a vote to elect his successor.
“Even if someone is of the opinion that the court is wrong in its conduct, whatever the disagreement between us, we must always ensure that the rules of democracy, without which we are destroyed, are upheld,” Rivlin said in an address to the nation. “Now that the speaker of the Knesset has resigned, I am sure that the order of the High Court of Justice will be implemented, and Israeli democracy will emerge strengthened and more resilient from these testing times.”
The court convened late Wednesday night to decide what should be done after Edelstein rejected the High Court’s demand he hold a vote for his successor by Wednesday and instead resigned, paving the way for the vote to go forward, but potentially delaying the vote until Monday since, according to the Knesset charter, the resignation only goes into effect after 48 hours.
His decision set off a furious stream of interim High Court decisions, questions, briefs and counter-briefs as the justices and the country’s top lawyers tried to navigate their way through the constitutional crisis.
One path was for the High Court to appoint Labor leader Amir Peretz, the most senior member of Knesset, to replace Edelstein, maybe even ending his speakership before the standard 48 hours expire.
This could lead to a vote anytime between Thursday and Sunday.
Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon’s preferred path was for the High Court to allow Edelstein the 48 hours – during which he maintains most of his authority – but to grant
Peretz the Knesset Speaker’s authority for the sole act of scheduling a vote for a new speaker. This could also enable a vote as early as Thursday.
None of the parties seemed to think a late Wednesday night vote was realistic with the court hearing still carrying on at 9:30 p.m.
Bizarrely, the second scenario would mean that for a short period, there would effectively be two speakers of the Knesset.
Yinon told the justices, who seemed desperate for help to understand how best to technically carry out their own wishes to hold a rushed vote, that the second idea was better because it would not end Edelstein’s speakership prematurely, and was more of a “surgical” removal of only one piece of his authority.
Earlier in the day, Edelstein told the court that its ruling could lead to an unprecedented constitutional crisis, violated the concept of separation of powers, interfered with coalition talks and would “prolong the country’s political paralysis.”
He said his conscience would not allow him to carry out the court order, so he decided to quit instead.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is not based on law but on one-sided, extreme analysis,” Edelstein told the plenum. “The court’s decision contradicts the bylaws of the Knesset. The court decision destroys the work of the Knesset...The court decision undermines the base of Israeli democracy.”
Edelstein, who became the first Knesset speaker ever to quit, then closed Wednesday’s session of the Knesset plenum and said it would only reconvene on Monday.
The 61 MKs in Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s bloc had intended to initiate a vote to elect Blue and White MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) as Edelstein’s replacement, but it is unclear when that vote will be able to take place. Cohen served as deputy Knesset speaker in the last functional Knesset until the April 2019 election.
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz blasted Edelstein’s behavior.
“The parliament of Israel belongs to the citizens of Israel, and their elected representatives will fulfill the laws of Israel and the decisions of its courts, and no one is above the law,” Gantz said.
Blue and White’s number two, MK Yair Lapid, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “sending Yuli to burn down our democracy.” He said MKs on the Right should be condemning Edelstein. Blue and White MK Moshe Ya’alon added that if Netanyahu was a private citizen, he would have been arrested by now for “inciting a rebellion.” •
For those who carefully track the slow erosion of Israel’s democracy in recent years, this should come as no surprise. The current justice minister, Amir Ohana, said after taking up his post in June that not all of the Supreme Court’s rulings need to be obeyed. Basically, that is like the chief of police saying that not all murderers need to be arrested.
Sadly, Edelstein proved him right on Wednesday. What he did joins other initiatives being promoted by the Likud to pass laws that would enable the Knesset to bypass the Supreme Court.
This is not to say there isn’t legitimate criticism of the Supreme Court. There is. For many years, the court has weighed in on issues that should have been beyond its purview and jurisdiction. The way justices are selected – behind closed doors, with no public oversight – is wrong and needs to be rectified.
But as President Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday night: “Even if someone is of the opinion that the court is wrong in its conduct, whatever the disagreement between us, we must always ensure that the rules of democracy, without which we are destroyed, are upheld.”
Rivlin could not be more right, and Edelstein more wrong. Israel is in the midst of an unprecedented national health crisis alongside the rest of the world. Our political leaders need to behave responsibly and understand that while the battle against the coronavirus continues, their job is to ensure our democracy remains intact. This is the time to reinforce our democracy and to safeguard it.
Edelstein failed that on Wednesday. Let’s hope this is the last time. •
Back to the victims, a 76-year-old man, Hillel Moshe from Yehud, was named as Israel’s fourth victim. He had been hospitalized at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, since last Monday and had significant preexisting medical conditions. Moshe’s wife is also hospitalized in Sheba with the virus.
The fifth victim is Reuven Ben-Moshe, 87, from Petah Tikva. He had been hospitalized in Bnei Brak. He also had preexisting conditions.
The name of the third person who died was released Wednesday: Moshe Ornstein, 87, who had been a resident in the Nofim Geriatric Center in Jerusalem. He had been hospitalized at Hadassah-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem.
Of the 2,369 infected people reported by the Health Ministry, 39 were in serious condition, 64 in satisfactory condition and 2,197 had mild symptoms. Among those in serious condition is a 45-yearold patient who, according to Channel 12, had no preexisting medical conditions.
More than 1,000 Israelis with the virus are being treated at home. Another 281 are recovering in one of the “coronavirus hotels” that were set up by the Defense Ministry, while almost 400 are hospitalized.
Netanyahu said that more than 5,000 tests for coronavirus had been conducted on Wednesday, pushing the total number of tests conducted to around 37,000 –
which means around 6% of those tested for the virus have been diagnosed as positive.
MKs Boaz Toporovsky (Blue and White) and Sondos Saleh (Joint List) became the latest MKs to enter home quarantine on Tuesday, bringing the number up to 10. Five MKs, including two ministers, ended their quarantine on Wednesday.
In addition, late Tuesday night, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman and other senior comptroller officials announced that they would go into 10 days of quarantine, after a senior official in the office tested positive for the coronavirus. Englman has no symptoms, but took the measure as a matter of standard precaution directed by the Health Ministry, and will continue to carry out his duties.
The quarantine announcement came only days after Englman issued the first report of his term, which included a key chapter about Israel knowing already in the fall of 2019 that it is not properly prepared for the breakout of a pandemic.
Late Wednesday, in an impassioned speech, President Reuven Rivlin asked the public to “learn the art of obedience.”
“My fellow Israeli citizens, once I was a young man and now I am old,” the president said. “As a child I personally experienced the siege of Jerusalem. As a people and as a nation, we have known the most severe moments of existential threat, and we beat them. I have no doubt in my heart that today, too, if we hold fast to public and personal responsibility and to the mutual obligations we have to each other, we can
beat this.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Gil Hoffman contributed to this report. •
DESPITE THESE many difficulties, some solutions have been found through modern technology. Use of videoconferencing technology has become widespread to conduct Torah lessons, to broadcast celebrations such as weddings, and even to conduct virtual communal prayer, something Jewish law does not make easy.
Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the religious-Zionist Tzohar rabbinical organization, told The Jerusalem Post that he welcomes many of these solutions as an important tool in preserving the communal aspects of Jewish life as best as possible, while battling the pandemic at the same time.
And while he said that he is concerned about the almost complete cessation to realworld communal life for people whose religious and social lives revolve around religious practice, he said he believes that there will not be lasting damage.
“I have seen the struggle of people to keep communal life going as much as possible; and because so much of it has been taken away, this crisis will make people value the synagogue and community even more,” he said.
The rabbi said that he is concerned about seniors and the elderly, many of whom he said live for their interactions with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and who are and will continue to suffer severely in an extended lockdown.
But while modern technology has provided solutions for some religious people, others have not availed themselves of these resources, imperfect as they are, and have sought to continue life as usual, particularly in the ultra-Orthodox community.
Shutting down communal religious life for this sector is something almost unimaginable because of how completely the lives of the ultra-Orthodox revolve around religious practice.
And so it has proved to be, as the senior rabbinic leadership initially dismissed the danger of the viral pandemic and continued to allow communal life, especially in schools and institutions of religious study, to continue unimpeded, although much of the community does now understand to a much greater extent the danger of the coronavirus.
Stav said that this reaction was understandable because of the manner in which the lives of the ultra-Orthodox revolve so completely around their religious practice.
He was, however, highly critical of the rabbinic leadership for insisting on the continuation of many aspects of religious life despite the clear dangers.
And he lambasted efforts to keep synagogues open for so long, noting that pressure had been brought to bear on Health Ministry officials to allow them to keep their doors open, and even now to allow prayer services outside with 10 men.
“I view very gravely religious leaders who should have been leading the fight to preserve life, pressuring officials not to close synagogues. I can’t understand it.
“You don’t play with danger to life, it’s that simple. Further, if tens of thousands of people die, and this was caused in part by such action, it would be a desecration of God’s name on an incredibly massive scale and will cause much hatred of religion.” •