quinta-feira, 18 de fevereiro de 2010

coragem na face do preconceito III

High Court in Tel Aviv Flexes its Liberal Muscles
"In no other country in the world has a high court dealt with issues of international law as much as it has in our country," says Aharon Barak, the former president of the Supreme Court. This is precisely why the judges have made so many enemies with their liberal administration of justice. For some rabbis, the court's rulings are nothing short of blasphemy. Some generals consider the judges to be a security risk, and politicians see them as rivals.

(...) The central problem, says Beinisch, is that Israel doesn't have a constitution. Although the 1948 declaration of independence expressly stipulates the creation of a written constitution, it hasn't been formulated yet -- in deference to the ultra-orthodox Jews, who refuse to recognize any constitution other than the Torah. This frequently gives the government and members of parliament an excuse to question the sovereignty of the highest court -- for political expediency, of course.

In addition, because there is no constitution, there is nothing that clearly states whether each citizen has certain inalienable rights. The country only has its so-called basic laws, which, like any other laws, can be amended with a simple majority. According to the basic law on "human dignity and freedom," Israel aims to be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time. But what does this mean for its roughly 1.3 million Arab citizens?

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