Who is the Sovereign in the State of Israel?

By MK Moshe Feiglin

 

Today, after 17 years of investigation and trials, former (and future) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was acquitted by a unanimous court decision. Lieberman's story forces us to face a serious question: Who is the sovereign in the State of Israel? The people, by means of their elected officials? Or bureaucrats, who appointed themselves? 

I have decided to visit the elected mayor of Nazareth, Mr. Shimon Gefso, who is currently under house arrest for corruption charges. I know – they will accuse me of chasing after the votes of the Likud Central Committee; they will try to make me look guilty of corruption. But I am going.

I am not chasing after anybody. I will gain nothing from Gefso. Personally, I believe that he is innocent and that this is a classic “Dreyfus” case. But the real question has nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the newly re-elected mayor of Nazareth. Just as with Lieberman, the question is who is sovereign in this State? We, the people, by means of the people whom we have elected? Or a band of bureaucrats that has appointed itself as lords of the land?

The lords of the land attempted to prevent the residents of Nazareth from voting for Gefso. But the people of Nazareth (Heaven help us) disobeyed the lords of the land and elected him, nevertheless. Now they are teaching the sovereign – the people – a humiliating lesson. In a media-saturated operation, they have chosen to arrest Gefso just days after the election. They even had the audacity to demand a court order to distance him from city hall for 30 days; in other words, precisely the critical days in which he is supposed to get his municipal coalition together and begin working in earnest. As far as they are concerned, Nazareth can go to the dogs. The main thing is that they have the last word and that they will remain the sovereign and not the voters. 

These lords must understand that the people have had their say at the ballot box. They must allow Gefso to fulfill the wishes of the public. In my opinion, all investigations and indictments against elected officials should be postponed until their term is over. I can say this now, because I wrote the same thing in an article about one of the politicians for whom I have nothing but contempt: the post-Amonah Ehud Olmert. This is what I wrote in May 2008: 

Judicial Tyranny

I don’t think that it is proper to investigate a prime minister while he is in office. Not that I have anything good to say about Olmert. I know that he is corrupt and I have absolutely no good wishes for the prime minister responsible for Amona. But on principle, I think that there is a serious flaw in the fact that he is being investigated while he is in office.

What has actually taken place here is that a very small group of judicial officials – a group that was not elected by the public and whose motives are completely unknown – suddenly decides to investigate the man whom the public has elected to lead the country. In other words, a collection of technocrats has more power than the public. They can depose or change the officials elected by the public as they see fit. 

I do not know why they have sunk their fangs into Olmert and his unexplained wealth, but that is not important. What is important is that the power to choose leaders has been removed from the public and placed firmly under the control of “the rule of law gang,” as former Justice Minister Chaim Ramon so aptly described them. 

An elected prime minister or government minister should have immunity from police investigations for suspected offenses committed before his election. Unusual cases should be brought before the Knesset, where a special majority would have to authorize an investigation. When the official in question finishes his term of office, the investigation would proceed. The media should be allowed to continue to report on findings pertaining to the case, and the public should be allowed to decide whether or not to vote for the official once again.

If we do not insist on proper judicial conduct now, we will surely pay for it later, when the “rule of law gang” will depose yet another – probably rightist - government.

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The lords of the land could have waited a half a year or so to go after Gefso. After all, they have waited for years until now. Why arrest him a week after the elections?

I have no idea what Shimon Gefso did or did not do. But one thing is completely clear to me. Nothing that Gefso did can be more corrupt than a legal advisor or a retired judge who robs the public coffers to the tune of NIS86,000 per month for his pension. There are currently 300 people from the legal system who star at the top of the pyramid of those who have dug their hands deeply into the public’s pocket and live the good life as a result of this essential corruption. 

I am tired of all these stories. I was elected to the Knesset by the public, the sovereign. No bureaucrat or police officer will intimidate me. I will take my ethical credit and the public trust that I enjoy as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset to Shimon Gefso’s home to declare: The People are the sovereign – not self-appointed bureaucrats. Harass organized crime, drug dealers and those guilty of extortion. That is what you are being paid for. Remember that you are public servants – not the public’s lords.