Old timers in Israel may recall the debate in the Knesset in 1979 about the Elon Moreh settlement, established that year near the Samarian village of Rujeib.
A controversy erupted because the original location was set up by the state on private land and many felt that while it was important for Israel to establish communities in Yehudah and Shomron (as the area is called in Hebrew) this should not be done on private land – in this case, land owned by Arabs living in the portion of Israel captured during the Six Day War in 1967.
Placing it on private land near Rujeib made it an illegal settlement, some considered.
Then-prime minister Menachem Begin rose to address the Knesset that year in an attempt to solve the dispute that was roiling the citizenry. Rather than make a judgment call on the matter, he uttered those five famous words, “There are judges in Jerusalem.”
By doing so, in his role as the head of government, he affirmed his commitment to the rule of law and the independence of the Supreme Court, even when he disagreed with their rulings. It was famously used to support the court’s ultimate decision against an illegal settlement in Elon Moreh.
Israel’s Supreme Court rules against use of private land for new settlements
In the interests of good government and the rule of law, following the landmark Israeli ruling of Israel’s Supreme Court against the use of private land for new settlements, Elon Moreh was relocated in 1980 to its current site on the slope of the Mount Kabir range near Nablus. As a result, a clear message was sent signifying that the judicial system is the ultimate arbiter of legality in Israel.
More recently, during the tumultuous 2023 effort to push through what some call “radical” judicial reform, the phrase was used to criticize the court.
Nevertheless, its original intent and purpose, in Begin’s words, after the decision was handed down, was a “belief in a balanced judiciary and a firm sense of justice.”
That phrase has remained widely regarded as a cornerstone of Israeli democratic ethos and a commitment to judicial review, even when that review opposes the ruling coalition. At least, until recently.
Fast forward to the present. Toward the end of 2025, the Knesset approved the closure of Israel’s Army Radio, after 75 years of broadcasting, in a move that would shutter one of the country’s oldest media institutions at a time of mounting concerns over press freedom. The legislation set the closing date as March 1, 2026.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara warned, in an official memorandum, that the decision lacked the necessary factual and professional foundation and that advancing it violated the law.
“The decision forms part of a broader move to undermine public broadcasting in Israel and to restrict freedom of expression,” Baharav-Miara, who is not a cabinet member, said in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision, saying, “A military station broadcasting under the army’s authority exists in North Korea and perhaps a few other countries, and we certainly don’t want to be counted among them.”
It was strange that Netanyahu used North Korea rather than our strongest ally, the US, whose American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, for soldiers stationed or assigned overseas. But, then again, it would not have supported his interest in seeing the Army Radio closed.
Large segments of Israel were unhappy with this decision and brought suit in Israel’s Supreme Court, which ruled early this week. The court issued a conditional injunction against the cabinet’s decision to close down Army Radio. Israel’s cabinet will now be required to justify why the closure of Army Radio should not be annulled. A response is required not later than March 15, two weeks after the planned closure date.
In a total rebuke of former Prime Minister Begin’s admonitions of 1979, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi vowed to boycott the station and said the court’s rulings should be treated with a “shrug.”
“The decision [to close Army Radio] must be implemented on March 1. Even if the High Court of Justice set a deadline for submitting responses to the conditional order after that date, this does not freeze or nullify a lawful government decision,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
“The timetable set by the High Court does not override the law or the government’s authority to govern.”
Sadly, the prime minister has remained silent in the rebuke of the court by one of his cabinet members.
For students of history, this is how democracies crumble. When one branch of government believes that it is the only authority in the country and that the courts have no power over the legality or appropriateness of the government’s decisions, the country has started down the road to autocracy.
John Adams, the second president of the United States, said: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Words of caution by which to live in these perilous times before it is too late.
The writer, a Jerusalem resident, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI), past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and current board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).