If perchance he had been previously unaware that Supreme Court President Asher
Grunis is a tough cookie, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman discovered this week
that Grunis is prepared to publicly defend his principles, even if it
necessitates the public berating – in the Supreme Court building, of all places
– the minister of justice.
Usually the swearing-in ceremony of newly
appointed judges takes place at the official residence of the president of the
State. Once in awhile it takes place in the Supreme Court building – albeit not
inside the courtroom. It was entirely appropriate that this week’s
swearing-in ceremony for 17 new judges take place in the Supreme Court building
because this was the first time that Grunis, who has been in his post for less
than two months, would be sharing the dais with Neeman and with President Shimon
Peres at a ceremony of this kind.
The ceremony provides an opportunity
for all three dignitaries to spice the traditional platitudes with whatever
topic is weighing on their minds. Grunis was cheesed off with Neeman for
trying to push through a Basic Law bill in which one of the clauses would enable
a majority of at least 65 of the 120 Knesset members to revive a law that had
been ruled out by the High Court of Justice. Grunis disagreed with Neeman over
requiring a narrower majority than the 70-vote majority that Neeman had
recommended eight years ago when, in a non-ministerial capacity, he had headed a
public committee that brainstormed about the subject. Grunis was also angry that
Neeman had, on the eve of Passover, circulated a draft memorandum that had been
formulated without any input by members of the Supreme Court. Neeman had been
seeking to strengthen the Supreme Court by giving it the right to void any
legislation that conflicted with Basic Law. But at the same time, he was moving
to give the Knesset power that would allow it to disregard – and even override –
the ruling of the court. The proposed bill in its present format, said Grunis,
was very problematic and required in-depth discussion between all the relevant
parties. He warned that passage of the bill with its current wording would be
constitutionally damaging and would cause “weeping for generations to
come.”
For what was essentially a maiden speech at a ceremony of this
kind, Grunis instantly demonstrated that he would be a formidable
opponent. Peres observed that legislation passed by the Knesset was often
born out of coalition agreements and considerations and that these coalitions
operated for a limited time period. Thus, any legislation that would have
longterm effects had to be very carefully and responsibly considered. Judges are
not appointed for set periods as MKs are, and it was therefore essential, Peres
said, that there be cooperation and consensus between the executive, legislative
and judicial branches of the country – but not at the expense of the
independence of the judicial branch.
■ HOLOCAUST HEROES and Remembrance
Day, Remembrance Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Israel Independence Day
are seminal days of unity for the Jewish people – except when politics get in
the way. That seemed to be the case with former Kadima chair Tzipi Livni
and present incumbent Shaul Mofaz at the opening of the Holocaust memorial
ceremony at Yad Vashem on Wednesday night. Both sat in the front row, but at
opposite ends. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke briefly with Mofaz as he
was leaving.
■ GEFEN PUBLISHING House founder Murray S. Greenfield, who
was among the overseas volunteers involved in the effort to bring Holocaust
survivors to the land of Israel during the British Mandate period and who
remained in the nascent state following the War of Independence, is adding a
slightly new twist to the March of the Living. Greenfield, who is a writer as
well as a publisher, will meet a group of some 150 people from the March of the
Living Organization when they land in Israel in the dawn hours of Sunday morning
and will accompany them to Atlit, the coastal town south of Haifa which was used
by the British as a detention camp for what they termed to be illegal
immigrants. Many of these immigrants were intercepted at sea and sent to
Cyprus, where the British had also set up a detention camp.
Greenfield,
who was in the US merchant marines before joining Aliya Bet (as the immigration
effort was called), is completing a book on Holocaust survivors who spent time
in Cyprus and in Atlit . He will share some of his experiences with the March of
the Living participants to demonstrate how a united and determined effort can
revive a decimated nation. He will also lead the group through the Atlit
camps.
More than 100,000 survivors attempted to enter what was then
Palestine, arriving in 142 voyages. More than half were stopped by
British patrol boats and sent to Cyprus. Others were imprisoned in Atlit, whose
camp has now become a museum of illegal immigration. Greenfield has
chronicled part of the story in his book The Jews’ Secret Fleet which was later
made into a documentary film by Alan Rosenthal under the title Waves of Freedom.
Greenfield’s wife, Hana, nee Lustig, is a Czech Holocaust survivor who wrote a
book of her own experiences, Fragments of Memory, and, following the resumption
of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Czech Republic, initiated several
Holocaust memorial projects in her native land.
■ INTERVIEWED ON Israel
Radio on Thursday morning by Arye Golan, who is the son of Polish Holocaust
survivors, Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich, the daughter of Holocaust survivors,
refused to voice any criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on this
particular day, saying that Holocaust Remembrance Day was not an appropriate
time for such a thing. Yacimovich, whose mother’s whole family was murdered in
Treblinka, said when prodded by Golan that she was against using the Holocaust
as a backdrop for any existential threat to Israel. The situation today is
vastly different from that of 1938 and 1939, she explained. Today, Israel
is a strong and independent power that can hold its own and defend its people.
This was not the case in World War II. Acknowledging the importance of remaining
constantly vigilant, Yacimovich was nonetheless opposed to over-dramatizing
issues such as the Iranian nuclear threat and giving it a Holocaust
connotation.
On a personal note, Yacimovich, whose mother spent the war
years hiding in Warsaw in a hole in the wall behind a cupboard, said that her
parents, despite what they had suffered and the loved ones they had lost, had
succeeded in a raising an Israeli family. Although her father had not
lived to see it, her mother, who had once been left alone in the world, could
take pride in the fact that she had a daughter who headed a political party in
the Jewish homeland. In fact, Yacimovich will be drumming up additional support
this coming Sunday, April 22, at a Labor Party ideological seminar in
Jaffa.
■ AS HE does at every commemorative gathering at which he speaks,
President Peres at the opening ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day invoked the
name of his grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, who, wrapped in his prayer shawl,
was burned alive in the synagogue in the president’s birth place of Wieszniev
together with all the Jews in his community. The Germans wanted to prove
that they were a superior race by eradicating other races, said Peres, reminding
the large audience of Holocaust survivors and their families who were gathered
in the Warsaw Ghetto Plaza at Yad Vashem that today there are approximately 1.5
million Israeli citizens who are not Jewish. Mindful of the fact that the
Holocaust was the most brutal demonstration of racism, Peres warned against any
form of racial or religious discrimination against Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.
The implication was that we cannot do unto others what was done to
us.
Jews were not the only victims of the inhuman Nazi policy. Gypsies
were also victims and no less vulnerable than the Jews. Even today, they are
still being victimized in Europe, as are Jews in many places. In fact, a
delegation of European Sinti and Roma gypsies, headed by Romani Rose, who chairs
the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and who lost relatives in the
Holocaust, came to Israel at the invitation of the Israeli government to
participate in Holocaust commemorations. The delegation, which includes
representatives from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, met for
discussions with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin as well as with representatives
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main topic of their talks was the
increasing anti-Semitism and violence to which Jews, Sinti and Roma in Europe
are being subjected.
■ FORMER Channel 10 news anchor Miki Haimovich, who
took a coolingoff period following her resignation, is back in harness – not as
an anchorwoman for a rival channel but as the presenter of an advertising
campaign for Bituah Yashir. The insurance company has in the past used
well-known members of the entertainment industry to promote its brand
name.
Haimovich announced toward the end of 2010 that she would be
leaving Channel 10, and in June, 2011 presented her final news broadcast
alongside Ya’akov Eilon, who has since tendered his own resignation. The
two had previously been a team on Channel 2. Haimovich is married to television
personality Eli Ildis, who was hired as the presenter of an advertising campaign
and who last year promoted the male fashions of ML while Noa Tishbi promoted
ML’s female fashions. Both he and Tishbi have since been replaced. Haimovich has
landed a three-year contract valued at NIS 2.5 million. Not bad for a woman
who’s going to celebrate her 50th birthday in June.
greerfc@gmail.com