A two-to-one majority of a panel of Supreme Court judges today upheld a ruling by Minister of the Interior Moshe Haim Shapiro, refusing an immigrant’s visa to an American Jew indicted in the United States, but not yet tried there, on charges of alleged fraudulent financial transactions. However, because one of the members of the panel rendered a minority opinion, questioning a serious principle of law, the panel agreed to let five members of the Supreme Court reconsider the entire issue.
The case involves Mervyn Gold, of Cleveland. He arrived in Israel last month with a duplicate passport. His original passport had been taken from him in France by an American official who, thus, tried to force him to return to the United States to stand trial. However, he claimed the right of obtaining an immigrant’s visa under Israel’s “Law of Return,” which permits all Jews to come to Israel. Mr. Shapiro’s denial of that visa was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Minister, and was carried further to today’s panel.
The majority of today’s panel ruled that the Minister of the Interior was authorized to exercise “reasonable judgment” about a visa applicant’s past record, noting that Israel cannot be used as a refuge by fugitives from justice. However, Justice Haim Cohen, a member of the panel, held in a dissenting opinion that the applicant must be given “every consideration” as long as he has not been convicted and is still innocent in the eyes of the law. The new panel, consisting of five members of the Supreme Court, will be convened soon to rule definitively on the case, court officials said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
