https://www.newsweek.com/constitution-would-solve-israels-government-crisis-opinion-1787758
In effect, this is a power struggle between the Knesset—the Israeli parliament—and the Israeli judiciary, which over many years has assumed substantial authority to overturn laws and other acts of the Israeli government. Israel does not have a written constitution that outlines the authority of the Knesset and the Israeli Supreme Court, but since the inception of the country's political system it has been understood that the Knesset—a European-style parliamentary system—is elected by the Israeli people and thus authorized to make laws.
The whole point of the Basic Laws is to substitute for a constitution. They were to be respected by both the Knesset and the Supreme Court. We're in this mess now because the Basic Laws weren't good enough for Aharon Barak and he felt he had the unilateral right to rewrite them. Had he stayed in his lane, we wouldn't be having these problems now.
ReplyDeleteI remember being told by an older Labour Zionist that the real reason for the lack of a constitution is that even the Chilonim knew that the only real constitution for the Jewish people was the Torah but they couldn't do that so the Basic Laws were a compromise.