The president of Israel’s Supreme Court has lashed out at ministers and MPs for waging a campaign of incitement against the judiciary aimed at undermining its independence. “A campaign is being waged that gathers speed from year to year, with the goal of weakening the judicial system and the Supreme Court at its head,” Dorit Beinish told a legal conference on Thursday, with her remarks making headlines in most of Friday’s papers. “This is a campaign of delegitimisation led by a number of politicians, MPs and even cabinet ministers who exploit their immunity and give the general public false and misleading information that has deteriorated into incitement against the court, the justices and the judiciary’s work,” she said.
Her remarks, which were described as “unprecedented,” drew an angry response from right-wing parliamentarians and a mixed reaction from commentators, some of whom suggested she had overstepped the bounds of her authority. In her address, Beinish lashed out at MPs who have been trying to push through various laws aimed at curbing the court’s independence, including a bill seeking to grant legislators the right to vet Supreme Court nominees. Supreme Court judges in Israel are not appointed by political process, and opponents say the move is an ideologically motivated attempt to bring in justices seen as more amenable to the ruling right-wing coalition’s agenda.