In his first interview since being appointed Justice Minister, Avi Nissenkorn said that he would block any attempt to give the Knesset an override over the High Court of Justice as long as he is in office.
Nissenkorn spoke Saturday night to the Hebrew TV station N12. He explained a series of comments he had made regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bribery trial, which started on May 24.
Netanyahu has accused law enforcement of improperly manufacturing the bribery case against him, leading to support from the Right and condemnation for not respecting law enforcement from the Left.
The new justice minister told N12 that when Netanyahu complained that the cases against him are the result of “persecution,” he was “speaking his own truth.”
When the reporter pointed out that this is an odd position for a justice minister to take since he seemed to implicitly validate Netanyahu’s idea that law enforcement’s intentions are biased, Nissenkorn said he would defend the courts “with an iron fist.”
He also noted that he would block any attempts to allow the Knesset to roll back the High Court’s judicial review powers. Nissenkorn said that the country should want strong judicial review powers to protect the common man.
The issue of overriding the High Court burst back into the headlines this week after the High Court declared the Settlements Regulations Law unconstitutional. The law would have retroactively legalized around 4,000 unauthorized Jewish settler units in the West Bank.
When asked about attacks made by Netanyahu or former justice minister Amir Ohana on the legal system, he said that he and Ohana had different values, and that he would do his best to defend the courts given that Likud and Netanyahu are his coalition partners.