A proposal to enlarge Israel’s Supreme Court from 12 to 14 justices for a period of two years has won initial approval in the Knesset, despite reservations voiced by President Chaim Herzog.
The reason given was an overload of cases before the bar.
Justice Minister David Libai estimated that the court will have to deal with over 10,000 cases this year — more than 6,000 new ones and 4,000 old cases held over from previous years.
The court was last expanded in 1979, from 11 to 12 justices. Its work load has increased substantially over the years, from 4,116 new cases in 1981 to 6,208 new cases last year.
Last year’s figure was in addition to a backlog of 4,885 older pending cases.
Libai, presenting the proposed expansion bill to the Knesset, said the addition of two new justices would allow the creation of an additional fifth panel, enabling all five courtrooms in the new Supreme Court building to be used simultaneously.
But while the Knesset considered enlarging the Supreme Court, outgoing President Herzog, a lawyer by profession, seized an opportunity in one of his last public appearances to warn the nation about the judiciary’s gaining too much power.
As Herzog swore in new judges in his office, he said that the over-concentration of power in the hands of the judiciary has resulted in a “deep invasion of the area which should be reserved for the executive.”
He noted the large and growing number of petitions to the Supreme Court, saying this phenomenon impedes not only the work of the executive branch, but also of the Knesset.
“We should remember that the sanction of the nation’s trust in two authorities — the government and the Knesset — is expressed every four years in general elections, but not its trust in the judiciary,” Herzog said.
He noted that in the past, the Supreme Court limited the subjects it considered under its jurisdiction and had refrained from intervening in political affairs.
But recently, the court has shown an increasing readiness to hear appeals of a political nature, Herzog indicated.
When the court heard an appeal of the government’s deportation in December of 415 Palestinians to Lebanon, some Israelis complained it was interfering in a political issue.
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