Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked slammed previous Justice Ministers arguing she was able to follow through on her program to change the courts, in an interview with Channel 12 News on Monday. “For 40 years the Right was not really ruling,” she said, “those who made the decisions were the judges.” Under the Israeli court system the Supreme Court holds considerable power over the political system and is often tasked with complex issues, which in other forms of government are addressed by a constitution or a referendum. Shaked appointed judges who are known to hold more right-wing views, arguing that the courts usually rule with some bias towards the Left. When asked about the recent ruling by the Supreme Court to ban radical right-wing activist Michael Ben-Ari from running for office and to allow Hadash Party member Ofer Cassif to run, Shaked said “I think it would have been much more balanced to ban both Ben-Ari and Cassif.” The court effectively overturned the decision of the Knesset election committee to ban Cassif and allow Ben-Ari to run.
