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The Goal: Undermining Public Trust in the Supreme Court

>> Read the full position paper  

Bill for The Courts Law-2025 (Amendment: Decision on Composition of Supreme Court Panels and on Further Hearing) is an integral part of the regime revolution and the government’s efforts to undermine public trust in the Supreme Court by portraying its proceedings as a “rigged game.”

This private bill, which was submitted by MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) and is due to be discussed by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on 7 January 2025, deals with the mechanism for selecting the composition of Supreme Court judicial panels and for approving a further hearing. According to the bill, panels would be determined by computerized means and “without human intervention.”

Under existing law, the composition of judicial panels is determined by the President of the Supreme Court. The explanation attached to the bill argues, without any factual substantiation other than the citation of an irrelevant study, that the outcomes of hearings on petitions are manipulated by the President, who selects panels whose rulings are known in advance. In practice, however, most panels are determined by the court’s scheduling department in accordance with a set of criteria and priorities, whereas the President intervenes only in exceptional cases, primarily where seniority and area of expertise are concerned.

Given the huge number of new cases reaching the Supreme Court each year (about 10,000) versus the small number of judges, any computerized system would in any event be limited in its ability to create “diversity.” Moreover, greater randomness and arbitrariness in the selection of panels, at the expense of such criteria as urgency, workload, seniority, and expertise, might impair the proper functioning of the Supreme Court and the quality of professional service provided to the public.

Zulat categorically opposes the bill. Its approval would set a dangerous precedent and encourage further legislative initiatives aimed at divesting the President of the Supreme Court of additional powers through various means.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.