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November 18, 2005
Activist Judges — In Israel
So now it is official. Imperial judges, who ignore the written law for their own policy preferences, cite international laws to overturn domestic constitutions and use the Geneva Conventions to hamper the war on terror, are a major problem—in Israel. Just as in America, and in the European Union, activist judges in the Holy Land have used the Supreme Court for their own ends. Caroline Glick has an excellent column on this phenomena that afflicts the entire industrialized world, with the possible exception of Japan. (And, oh yes, they Bork judges in Israel too.) Glick makes an intriguing point about judicial activism and the war on terror:
"Last month the court outlawed the IDF’s practice of having Palestinians knock on the doors of wanted terrorists in order to shield Israeli security forces from attack. The court based its ruling on the Geneva Conventions even though the Knesset has never ratified its applicability to Judea, Samaria and Gaza.Also this year, in a series of rulings regarding the route of the security fence, the court has repeatedly second-guessed the Defense Ministry’s judgment of how Israelis can best be defended from terrorist attack. The court based its authority to interfere with the Defense Ministry’s executive authority on the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) July 2004 advisory opinion on the security fence - yet the ICJ has no legal standing in Israeli law. Indeed, in the case of the advisory opinion on the security fence, (which has no international legal weight anywhere), the Justice Ministry rejected the ICJ’s right to even discuss the matter and refused to send representatives to present arguments at the Hague."
Posted by Richard Miniter at November 18, 2005 08:30 AM