Professor Amnon Rubinstein spoke at a conference held by Hamburger Evron law firm, on Wednesday (November 23rd 2011) at the Tel Aviv Museum and commented on the recent events such as the scandal in the Committee for the Selection of rabbinical judges, the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the rising trend of private legislation.
"This is a dark day! If I were a lawyer, I would return my bar association's membership card", said Professor Rubinstein referring to the latest scandal in the appointment of rabbinical judges. According to Rubinstein, the only reason the Committee for the Selection of rabbinical judges intentionally excluded women from membership is that Shas ("Association of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews" an Israeli orthodox party) set the exclusion of women as a condition in return for giving its blessing to changing the composition of the Committee for Appointment of Judges. This committee also appoints judges to the Supreme Court. "This is an unbearable outcome" determined Rubinstein and added that for the first time in many years, No woman will sit in the Committee for the Selection of rabbinical judges. Rubinstein stated that the phenomenon of excluding women has recently accelerated and contradicts not only democracy's values, but also Zionism's. Rubinstein continued in this regard saying that the idea that the head of human resources in the IDF is in favor of women's singing but has authorized commanders to forbid it if it hurts the feelings of some of the soldiers – horrifies him.
As for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, Rubinstein stated that the court is not a sacred institution and the Committee for Appointing Judges is not proofed against changes. However, the way the changes are made nowadays bothers him. In his opinion, the court should have a judge who lived the days of the MA'ABAROT (transit camp) and experienced those problems, which are affecting the Israeli public until today. It does not matter if he is Ashkenazi (Jew of East or Western Europe origin) or Mizrahi (Middle Eastern).
Rubinstein also believes that "enough with the election system which led to over- representation and in fact is controlled by the minority over the majority". According to Rubinstein, "the supreme court in Israel is one of the few assets we can proudly sell around the world next to the philharmonic orchestra and the Weisman institution". On the other hand, says Rubinstein, "the democracy in Israel is perceived in any textbook as a representative democracy with a low votes threshold and the public opinion polls indicates that the Israeli public is much more enlightened than the Knesset, whose members repeatedly go to the extreme in order to satisfy their parties". Rubinstein added that "because of the primaries, small organized groups are ludicrously expressed more than their actual share in the population. This has empowered the extremists on both sides. "
Professor Rubinstein also referred to the wave of private legislation spreading throughout the Knesset nowadays and noted that the situation with unrestrained legislation has radically deteriorated. So much so, that the Knesset passed a law determining that if a client is not served cold water in a restaurant, it is an offense punishable by up to one year in prison. Rubinstein concluded that private legislation is something to be proud of with regard to human rights laws and the bottles recycling law, but it must be held and conducted in a rational way. |
Our Legend
Hamburger Evron & Co. was founded in 1928 by the late Adv. Arie Hamburger.
Since the 70's, the firm was headed by the late Adv. Amnon Evron, who was recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Israel in the fields of commercial law, and was renowned as an expert lawyer and a gifted litigator. In addition to his legal activities, Adv. Evron was a member on the board of the international Arthur Rubinstein Voluntary association, and was a board member of the new Israeli opera association.
