Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court of Israel (Hebrew: בֵּית הַמִּשְׁפָּט הָעֶלְיוֹן, romanized: Beit haMishpat haElyon; Arabic: المحكمة العليا, romanized: al-Maḥkama al-‘Ulyā) is the highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court consists of 15 judges appointed by the President of Israel, upon nomination by the Judicial Selection Committee. Once appointed, Judges serve until retirement at the age of 70 unless they resign or are removed from office. The Presidency of the Supreme Court is currently vacant, following the retirement of Esther Hayut. As such, Deputy President Uzi Vogelman is serving as acting President. The Court is situated in Jerusalem's Givat Ram governmental campus, about half a kilometer from Israel's legislature, the Knesset.
When ruling as the High Court of Justice (Hebrew: בֵּית מִשְׁפָּט גָּבוֹהַּ לְצֶדֶק, Beit Mishpat Gavo'ah LeTzedek; also known as its acronym Bagatz, בג"ץ), the court rules on the legality of decisions of State authorities: government decisions, those of local authorities and other bodies and persons performing public functions under the law, and direct challenges to the constitutionality of laws enacted by the Knesset. The court may review actions by state authorities outside of Israel.
By the principle of binding precedent (stare decisis), Supreme Court rulings are binding upon every other court, except itself. Over the years, it has ruled on numerous sensitive issues, some of which relate to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the rights of Arab citizens, and discrimination between Jewish groups in Israel.
On 24 July 2023, the 25th Knesset "passed the bill to cancel the reasonableness standard into law", which could diminish the power of the Supreme Court to check future actions of the government.[2] On 1 Jan 2024 the Supreme Court overturned that change in an 8-7 decision.[3][4][5]
Presiding Judge
In a case on which the President of the Supreme Court sits, the President is the Presiding Judge; in a case on which the Deputy President sits and the President does not sit, the Deputy President is the Presiding Judge; in any other case, the Judge with the greatest length of service is the Presiding Judge. The length of service, for this purpose, is calculated from the date of the appointment of the Judge to the Supreme Court.
Intervention
In the 1980s and the 1990s, the Supreme Court established its role as a protector of human rights, intervening to secure freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate, reduce military censorship, limit the use of certain military methods[11] and promote equality between various sectors of the population.[12] However critics question the role of the court in protecting the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and point to double standards in their application.[13]
Public perception
According to a 2017 poll by non-profit organization Israel Democracy Institute, the Supreme Court is the only State institution that the majority of both Jewish (57%) and Arab citizens of Israel (54%) have trust in,[14] marking a slight increase from their 2016 poll.[15]
The Institute's 2017 poll on the statement "[t]he power of judicial review over Knesset legislation should be taken away from the Supreme Court" found that 58% of Israelis disagree, 36% agree, and 6% do not know.[16]
Trust in the court has since dropped dramatically, with a 2022 poll shows trust in the court dropping to just 41% among Jews,[17] and opposition to an "override clause", allowing the Knesset to nulify supreme court decisions with a 61 vote majority, dropping to just 48%.[18]