It is very possible that MK Yaakov Litzman's first significant struggle, while sitting in the office chair in the office of the Deputy Minister of Health, will be in court.<\/p>\r\n
Indeed, MK Yair Lapid, who is preparing for a lengthy opposition session, chooses to invite MK Litzman to a first duel in the High Court hearing room.<\/p>\r\n
Truth be told, in this case, he has a case. If United Torah Judaism chooses to ignore the impending petition from the opposition this time too, Lapid may win a successful first 'knock-out'.<\/p>\r\n
In the previous petition, filed during the formation of the 32nd government - Netanyahu's second government, established in 2009 - against Litzman's appointment as Deputy Minister of Health, the judges did rule that the petition should be rejected, but they laid the groundwork for the next petition and said, in an unambiguous manner, that the result would be different next time.<\/p>\r\n
The petitioners at the time attacked the issue from the aspect of administrative law. This is a legal area in which the High Court generally does not intervene. The High Court has always distanced itself from interfering in coalition agreements, but if the attack had been from the constitutional aspect, the result would probably have been different.<\/p>\r\n
Judge Rubinstein wrote in the ruling: "At the end of the day, our words are said with a forward-looking view, and I will call it a 'warning of nullity'; ... It seems that the institution of 'as if', of a deputy minister who performs the functions of a minister to the fullest extent of formal ability, with the incumbent minister being the prime minister, as opposed to a deputy minister in its basic form, is an institution that is nearing the end of its life.".<\/p>\r\n
\""The government system must give its opinion that this ruling, even if it did not lead to judicial intervention in light of the background described, constitutes a signpost for the future. What no person from the community can accept as logical and acceptable, and for which there is another solution - should be resolved in the correct way, which is fair to all of Alma and fulfills the spirit of the law, that is, the appointment of a minister in accordance with all its laws and the Constitution.<\/p>\r\n
\""A government ministry should be such that whoever heads it in practice, in essence, will have all the powers and authorities, from beginning to end, to fulfill his role and serve the public. This will be the case in the future, and we assume that this will be the case in the next government. Of course, it is always possible to appoint a deputy minister - but in his "natural dimensions", alongside the minister who acts in the ministry as a minister.."\"<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0The judge further adds: "In retrospect, I can say that there may have been room for weeding this weed in the past. Before us is a parliamentary faction that, for reasons that have not been clarified, even now (the faction itself is a respondent in the case, but did not respond), prefers not to formally fulfill ministerial duties, and therefore it remains in government representation by deputy ministers - and on the other hand, in the coalition agreement it was given the "full" management of a government ministry with all that is implied - almost all that is implied; and that is what we will come to.".<\/p>\r\n
\""The meeting of political interests produces doubly androgyny, since the institution of deputy ministers is entirely constitutionally androgynous, between the executive branch and the Knesset...and the addition of handling the full range of ministry affairs doubles the androgyny.".<\/p>\r\n
\""However, we cannot ignore for now that the normative framework that has existed up to now, including in the rulings of this court, has not disallowed this institution, but rather has attempted to place it within a framework and set boundaries for it. Will this night of all nights change, or is it only about to change?" asks Judge Rubinstein.<\/p>\r\n
In fact, the judges say in the ruling that they would very much like to prevent Torah Judaism from accepting deputy ministerial positions in a ministry that does not have an actual minister, other than the Prime Minister himself, but the time is not yet ripe to prohibit this.<\/p>\r\n
If a suitable response to this petition had been given by United Torah Judaism, then the judges would have given heed to this response - and would not have prepared the ground for the next petition.<\/p>\r\n
Litzman himself was not included as a respondent to this petition, a fact that in itself could have led to the petition being rejected outright, had someone stood up and argued this.<\/p>\r\n
But when it comes to the court, Torah Judaism prefers to let the state, which is usually the respondent, fight the war of the ultra-Orthodox public - for the most part without success.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the previous petition, which was filed during the formation of the 32nd government against Litzman's appointment as Deputy Minister of Health, the judges did rule that the petition should be rejected, but they laid the foundation for the next petition and said, in an unambiguous manner, that the outcome would be different. \u2022 Lawyer Eliezer Rudin on the expected battle between Lapid and Litzman","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n