National Union Chairman, MK Bezalel Smotrich, participated this evening (Monday) in the Movement for Quality Government conference - and aroused the anger of the left-wing audience, after he called for eradicating corruption in the judicial system.
Smotrich said: "When we talk about government corruption today, we mainly mean corruption by elected officials in the legislative and executive branches, but we forget that there is another branch of government - the judiciary - and there is corruption in it too that needs to be eradicated.".
According to a report on Channel 7, he listed a series of failures and double standards in the administration of the courts, the Supreme Court, the State Comptroller's Office, the police, and the prosecutor's office.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
Smotrit explained: "Critics of the judicial system, and I am among them, do not seek, God forbid, to harm it. All we seek is to prevent governmental tyranny and the corruption and waste that usually accompany governmental tyranny.".
He emphasized: "The hypocrisy and double standards are a hallmark of governmental tyranny, and such can unfortunately be found in quite a few cases in our legal system, in its various branches.".
The National Union Chairman demonstrated: "Take, for example, the fact that the president, Judge Esther Hayut, transferred three cases to mediation with her friend, retired Judge Gerstel, in the first year she began serving as a mediator, as revealed by Maariv journalist Kalman Leveskind. This is a transfer of huge sums - about 3,000 NIS per hour. Imagine what an indictment would look like if it were filed against a minister who used his office to purchase pencils from a close friend.".
He added: "The way to deal with corruption is to return to the classic separation of powers model - and that means challenging the unlimited power of the judicial system. That means enacting the override clause, that means restoring the right to stand, that means limiting the use of the reason for reasonableness on decisions by elected officials.".
The chairman of the National Union promised: "We started this in this term and we will continue it with full vigor in the next term. The left, for whom the old system worked in their favor, will continue to shout, and we will continue to do it.".
