Details
Requested |
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- 1) Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the "Declaration
of the Establishment of the State of Israel" cannot be used
to affect the law-making activities of the Knesset (Zeev
v. Gubernik (1948)) even though it states basic principles
for the State (such as equality for all - see below);
THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
STATE OF ISRAEL
(14 May, 1948) |
| THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. |
- 2) Israeli Supreme Court ruled numbers of times that Israel's
quasi-Constitution, called the Basic Laws, are not to have special
legal status so that they can be used to pass judgment on the
law-making activities of the Knesset (Negev v. State
of Israel (1973); Kaniel v. Minister of Justice
(1973); and Ressler v. Chairman of Central Elections
Knesset Committee (1977));
- 3) The Knesset also clearly excluded the power of judicial review
from its description of the duties of the Supreme Court, in its
"Basic
Law: The Judiciary" (1984);
- 4) But then in 1992, the Knesset passed two Basic Laws ("Basic
Law: Freedom of Vocation" & "Basic
Law: Human Freedom and Dignity") which did include power of
judicial review (these laws listed numbers of civil rights, but
still did not mention equal rights under the law);
- 5) Finally in 1995, and again in 1998, the Supreme Court of
Israel made rulings giving itself the power of judicial review
(Mizrahi Bank v. Migdal Cooperative Village
(1995 49 (4) PD 221 (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
1998) but it still has not used this power on behalf of equal
rights for all Israelis under the law.
- C. Empowering Knesset to pass "emergency legislation" which can
violate previously laws passed, and largely has no legal moral limits;
- 1) In the first law the Israeli legislature passed, the "Law
and Administration Ordinance (1948), it awarded itself in Section
9 the power to pass 'emergency regulations' in emergency situations
which may "may alter any law, suspend its effect or modify it,
and may also impose or increase taxes or other obligatory payments".
Since 1948 the Knesset has passed hundreds of such regulations
covering everything from shipping to immigration;
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LAW AND ADMINISTRATION ORDINANCE
No. 1 of 5708-1948 |
Emergency
regulations. |
9.
- (a) If the Provisional Council of State deems it expedient
so to do, it may declare that a state of emergency exists
in the State, and upon such declaration being published
in the Official Gazette, the Provisional Government
may authorise the Prime Minister or any other Minister
to make such emergency regulations as may seem to him
expedient in the interests.of the defence of the State,
public security and the maintenance of supplies and
essential services.
- (b) An emergency regulation may alter any law, suspend
its effect or modify it, and may also impose or increase
taxes or other obligatory payments.
- (c) An emergency regulation shall expire three months
after it is made, unless it is extended, or revoked
at an earlier date, by an Ordinance of the Provisional
Council of State, or revoked by the regulation-making
authority.
- (d) Whenever the Provisional Council of State thinks
fit, it shall declare that the state of emergency has
ceased to exist, and upon such declaration being published
in the Official Gazette, the emergency regulations shall
expire on the date or dates prescribed in such declaration.
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- 2) The above law stated in Section 9(a) that passing emergency
regulations was only ok when the Knesset had declared that the
State of Israel is in an emergency. It has declared such a state
continuously since the establishment of the State of Israel in
1948.
- 3) The Knesset ok'ed the use within the State of Israel of the
Defense (Emergency)
Regulations of 1945 in the 24th amendment of the "Law and
Administration Ordinance" (1948). These regulations empower the
State to violate huge numbers of civil liberties, and were greatly
protested by both the Zionists and the Arabs when they were implemented
by the British Mandate Government in 1945.
- 4) In Military Order 224 "Order Concerning Interpretations (Additional
Regulations)" (Feb. 1968), the Israeli Military installed the
Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945 for use in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Since that time these regulations have
been modified extensively.
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