Israelisk allmänbildning (+ liten överkurs)

Idag gick en lysande jurist/domare formellt i pension (även om hon under de närmaste tre månaderna kommer att meddela domslut i flera processer/civilrättsliga mål). Hon heter Dorit Beinisch. Läs om hennes bakgrund och karriär på Wikipedia. Efter ett flertal tunga och juridiska uppdrag blev hon 2006 den första kvinnan på posten som president i Högsta Domstolen (Supreme Court of Israel). Hon föddes i Tel Aviv 1942. Hon studerade vid Hebreiska Universitetet i Jerusalem. Hennes 45-åriga juristkarriär inleddes 1967 på Justitiedepartementet. Där kom hon att jobba i 28 år. Och nu, efter 15 år som President vid Högsta Domstolen, efterträds hon av Asher Grunis.

Citat från dagens artiklar i samband med pensioneringen, först några ord från Beinisch:

”As a judge in the Supreme Court I have always believed that it is most important to maintain the independence of the court and to maintain its ability to carry out the values of democracy,” Beinisch said. ”Every Israeli must know that the court is his fortress.”

“It seems to me that throughout the years, I had opportunity to deal with every legal domain the state was involved in.”

“The most difficult decisions I had to make as a judge were those affecting the lives of individuals, when I had to consolidate personal sentiment with the dictates of the law. In decision of this kind, a judge must remember that behind every case there is a man whose life will be changed for many years to come based on his ruling.”

“…we must attend to the growing strife in the different strata of Israeli society. The middle class feels neglected, which could lead to the destabilization of the entire structure. The changes the country has experienced in recent years have forced the legal system to take up the new task of dealing with a new reality. Our society is dealing with innumerable problems. We are living in a polarized society, in a harsh reality.”

”The guideline I and my colleagues followed was that policy was not dictated by the State Prosecution. There are always red lines which we must not cross but we cannot waive the principles that we base our work on.”

Ur ynet, med bl a uttalande om Beinisch av JK m.fl.:

During the ceremony in Jerusalem, which was attended by a host of leading judicial officials, including former Supreme Court presidents Aharon Barak and Meir Shamgar, former Supreme Court Judge Yitzhak Zamir said that during her term Beinisch succeeded in fending off attacks on the court and ”safeguard the court’s status and authority.” 

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein lauded Beinisch’s ”courage,” saying that ”human dignity” was her ”Lodestar.” 

Beinisch’s rulings ”were not issued from an ivory tower,” the AG added. ”She is deeply connected to Israeli society. This connection stems mainly from her love for this country.” 

Incoming Supreme Court president Grunis said that ”the president (Beinisch) has a wonderful combination of extensive legal knowledge and in-depth awareness of the realities, a winning combination of according a great deal of weight to human rights together with a recognition of the general public’s interests and the security demands,” he stressed. 

According to Grunis, ”her term in office was not an easy one. The president defended the judicial authority with assertiveness, and fearless resolve.” 

Speaking to Ynet a senior official within the judicial system summed up Beinisch’s term in office: ”It is the end of the Beinisch era, which was one of the most tumultuous in the history of the legal system.”

Men såklart - många uttrycker idag även kritik mot Domare Beinisch:  MKs. says Beinisch promoted ´political agenda´. Yariv Levin från Likud säger:

”A radical leftist minority, which was elected via the ”friend brings a friend” system, without transparency, tried through post-Zionism and a number of peculiar rulings to dictate its values to all of society. Now that her tenure has ended, Beinisch will no longer be able to try and promote the political agenda she believes in from the judge’s bench. At the most she’ll be able to join her friends in the opposition.”

Och:

MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) criticized Beinisch’s ”untimely” decision to accept petitions against the Tal Law, which exempts yeshiva students from military service. He said it was no coincidence that the ruling was issued before the main news broadcasts: ”(Beinisch) acted out of ”primetime” considerations.”

Men hon hyllas av Shaul Mofaz (Kadima):

”The voice is that of Jacob but the hands are those of Esau. Standing before these forces who sought to weaken the judicial authority, Beinisch stood as a fortified barrier and bravely defended the rule of law in Israel. She leaves behind her a legacy of justice and values which are the cornerstones of Israeli society.”

Och Yohanan Plesner (Kadima) tillägger:

Beinisch was wise enough to maintain the suitable balance in the relationship between the authorities and avoid over-involvement in Knesset and cabinet decisions. Yet when these decisions needed to be made, as with the Tal Law, she proved that the courts have the power and legitimacy to make the necessary decision.” 

Fler lästips – Ari Shavit, Haaretz: Supreme Court President Beinisch will be remembered for her battles. Ett par citat: ”Dorit Beinisch is not the kind of Supreme Court president whose career was accompanied by fireworks. She does not have the splendor of Meir Shamgar or the sparkle of Aharon Barak. She is not a legal genius or a social revolutionary, or a princess raised to the throne. But Beinisch is an enlightened, wise fair, hardworking and brave judge, a judge with human dimensions.” Och:

The outgoing president of the Supreme Court is no saint. She has repeatedly employed factionalism and played into the hands of detractors who sought to depict her as a symbol of the arrogance and inflexibility of the elites from Rehavia. But in practice, Beinisch is a rather humble person who gets to the point right away. She is proud, not of her judicial activism but of the administrative improvements she introduced into the courts.

Nonetheless, after five and a half years, the first female president of the Supreme Court will be remembered for her battles, and ultimately for fight for constitutional democracy in Israel.

Beinisch warns of more political attacks on Supreme Court in farewell speech. Ett citat: On Monday, Beinisch refrained from making controversial remarks, but only last December she gave a dramatic speech at a legal conference in which she warned of an open campaign of incitement against the Supreme Court and its judges.

She also refused to criticize justice minister Yaakov Neeman on Monday  when asked if she expected him to defend the judicial system in general and the courts in particular – in light of the various legislative initiatives in the Knesset. ”I am not the judge of the justice minister,” she said. ”I did not expect him to come out against the legislation.” Beinisch called the relations between the two ”correct.”

—

Överkurs för Israel-nördar, från Wikipedia:

Landmark rulings

Beinisch has focused on government corruption and to ensuring that government institutions adhere to the law, with a particular emphasis placed on the IDF, the police and general security services.

Among her many notable rulings as a Supreme Court Justice is a decision holding that parents cannot use corporal punishment. Corporal punishment, she wrote, violated the child’s right to dignity and bodily integrity.^[10]

In a 2006 case concerning a detainee’s right to legal counsel, the Supreme Court acquitted a soldier convicted of using drugs on the basis of his own confession, because the military policeman who interrogated him did not inform him of his right to consult with an attorney. Beinisch ruled that in view of the normative change in the Israeli legal system introduced by the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, the time has come to adopt a case law doctrine of inadmissibility for illegally obtained evidence. She also held that the appropriate doctrine for the Israeli legal system to adopt is not an absolute one, but a relative doctrine which allows the court to exclude illegally obtained evidence at its discretion.^[11]

Some of Beinisch’s rulings have dealt with safeguarding human rights while addressing pressing security needs in the West Bank and Gaza. In a 2005 ruling against the Israeli army’s use of “human shields” she concurred with then-President Aharon Barak that the practice of sending in a local Palestinian ahead of Israeli troops during arrest raids endangered his life, violated his free will and his human dignity.

In a judgment rendered in September 2007, Beinisch ruled that the route of the separation fence built by Israel must be altered near the Palestinian village of Bil’in. Beinisch accepted the military commander’s claim that the fence in this area was built for reasons of national security, but held that accommodations made for future Israeli construction did not constitute a vital security need and the route of the fence in the Bil’in area did not meet the proportionality requirement.

In 2007, a petition was brought before the Supreme Court regarding the government’s decision to protect the schools in Israeli cities from attacks by Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The authorities adopted a protection plan under which some of the classrooms were protected and others were not. Beinisch ruled that the decision not to fully protect the classrooms of children in grades 4–12 and special classrooms was highly unreasonable, and the court could intervene.

In 2008, Beinisch ruled on interpretation of the Unlawful Combatants Law and the extent to which the law is consistent with international humanitarian law. In her leading judgment, Beinisch wrote that administrative detention of an ”unlawful combatant” significantly violates his right to personal liberty. This was consistent with the basic outlook that prevails in the Israeli legal system, according to which it is preferable to uphold a statute by interpretive means wherever possible, rather than to declare it void for constitutional reasons.

In 2009, Beinisch issued a precedent-setting ruling on the unconstitutional nature of the privatization of prisons.^[12]

Beinisch is also known for her dissenting opinions. In one case, she held that a plea-bargain agreement over sexual abuse charges should be canceled because it contravened administrative principles and were against the public interest. In another case, she held that the total ban on political advertisements in television and radio broadcasts was invalid because there is no explicit primary legislation for such an excessive limitation on freedom of political expression.