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MORE DRAMA: Supreme Court Freezes Incapacitation Law

Esther Hayut, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, center, sits on the bench during a hearing on a petition against a law that limits removal of a prime minister from office to medical and mental incapacitation. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday issued a temporary injunction against the Incapacitation Law following last week’s unprecedented hearing on the law, which was passed as an amendment to a Basic Law.

The court also stated that it will hold an extended hearing on the law, with an 11-judge panel versus the three-judge panel that deliberated the law on Thursday. The Incapacitation Law prevents an attorney-general from declaring a prime minister as “incapacitated” [unfit for office] except in exceptional circumstances.

The injunction orders Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Knesset to justify why the court shouldn’t rule that the implementation of the law be postponed until the next Knesset so it won’t be viewed as a personal law designed to aid Netanyahu.

The court’s statement is quite a dramatic one since it indicates that it is considering interfering with a Basic Law for the first time despite the fact that it has no authority to do so, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)



3 Responses

  1. Could someone give me the Readers Digest version or the Monarch/Cliff Notes version. Way too many double negatives here to follow.

  2. Shuali. The Israeli Supreme Court creates its own rules and standards. It names its own new members with no checks and balances with the legislative or executive branches. This is unprecedented and was never the case previously. No other country has this level of unchecked power concentrated in one unelected undemocratic branch of government.

    It is, however, supposed to treat “Basic Laws” like the US constitution and Amendments to the Constitution.
    The current Knesset passed an amendment to the Basic Laws yet the Israeli Supreme Court is indicating that it will review and possibly invalidate the Amendment. That’s going to create a huge problem as you can imagine.

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