Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal published a scathing attack against Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon and his superior, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in his weekly column in Yisrael Hayom.
“Many people are endangering democracy in Israel,” Segal began. “But it’s doubtful there is anyone who endangers it more than Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon. The Deputy Attorney General, the bureaucrat who has never given an interview and always stays in the background, is the driving force behind the Attorney General’s effort to turn Israel’s administrative and constitutional law into dust and ashes.”
“His goal is to delay and obstruct at any cost—turning every appointment, every piece of legislation, and every government procedure into an almost declarative event, empty of substance, that always ends up in the High Court. When this is done systematically and consistently, with twice‑daily warnings about the ‘end of democracy,’ the result is the neutering of majority rule.”
Segal then addressed the affair surrounding the appointment of Roman Gofman as Mossad chief, calling it “the peak—or the low point—of Limon and his circle’s conduct.”
“The number of substantive flaws committed by Baharav-Miara exceeded any flaws Goman was accused of: deliberately delaying her response, submitting her opinion only to former Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, and lying to the media that no such opinion existed.”
Segal added: “Limon and his circle are inflicting severe damage on democracy because they constantly change the rules, rewrite them, and allow oral interpretations to override written ones—interpretations that themselves change from day to day, all according to the interests at hand.”
Segal concluded sharply: “The Justice Ministry has collapsed. The next government will have to lift it off the floor.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
The main thing that is necessary in running a country is truth. The Attorney General considers herself the essence of truth, if she says something it becomes the truth.
The legitimacy of any government is proportional to how great is the consent of the governed. The consent of the governed is documented by elections. We have a constitution that is the foundation of to what extent the government is legitimate. Unfortunately Ben gurion opposed the writing of a constitution as it would limit the governments power. Which is the entire point of our constitution – to limit the governments power. Our judiciary system is at least indirectly democratic in that judges are appointed by elected officials. Israel has none of this. Their white paper or whatever they call. It is not a constitution, but rather indicates technically how the government is run. This is how elections are made. This is how the government is broken down into. It is not a constitution. I believe it was not until recently that the Supreme Court had any real power at all. The chief Justice just decided one day that he could determine what is or is not allowed from the elected government. It was a massive power grab.
In addition, the Supreme Court has no Democratic character in that they appoint themselves. There’s no relation to any consent of the governed.
In that case, if there is a discrepancy between a body that reflects the will of the people and a body that does not reflect the will of the people it seems obvious to me that the Democratic body be dominant. This is not the case in Isreal.
It’s for this reason that I think the judiciary is not legitimate and so this limits the legitimacy of the government.