Knesset Speaker: Any Supreme Court Ruling on the Nationality Law Will Be Invalid

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) has sent a letter to the President of the Supreme Court, Justice Esther Hayut before the Court’s hearing of petitions against the Nationality Law on Tuesday.

Levin stresses that “The Knesset is the legislative body … the Supreme Court derives its authority from the Knesset and not the reverse.”  A supreme court ruling would therefore be invalid in the face of Knesset law. He also voiced objection to the fact that the hearing was being held.

“The very fact that a hearing is taking place in the Supreme Court on matters of basic laws is a contravention of the most basic democratic principles of the sovereign power of the people and the separation between powers,” he added. “Any decision reached by the Court that constitutes intervention in the workings of the Knesset will lack all authority and all validity. This is an attempt to impose the worldview of the Supreme Court Justices as if they were the ones running the country.”

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit voiced his opinion, too. His point was that there was no legal basis for the petitioners’ position, requiring that their petition be rejected.

During the presentation of the arguments by petitioners, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wrote on social media that the Supreme Court “has no authority to debate the validity of Basic Laws,” adding that the court “is not an absolute ruler” and called for the limitation of judicial authority.