Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Law-February
5, 2017
We got to the Supreme Court too early for the tour, but had a chance to walk over the pedestrian bridge to Cinema City. It's a high-rise movie multiplex built around a shopping mall with restaurants. We sipped coffee at McDonald’s & plotted where we'd eat lunch.
The first order of business before our tour was checking out the bathrooms. I found them & also the way to the bomb shelter. Steel doors with crank closings like on a submarine added a sense of security & spookiness.
We were handed an overview of the courts in English from a rack with several different languages. I didn't recognize one. It was Ethiopian. Of course. Our guide was from France but had been in Israel 30 years. As the only two on the tour, he gave us his undivided attention for 1 1/2 hours. My brain runneth over.
The Israeli justice system borrows from Ottoman (Shariah) law (after 400 years of occupation), British law (end of WWI until 1948), & Jewish law. The austerely modern building of planes and circles reflects the philosophy that the law is rigid & man made (straight lines), but justice comes from the heavens (circular windows admitting light).
They opted not to use a jury system preferring professionals to render decisions. Everyone is entitled to representation regardless of whether or not they're citizens. The court is three-tiered. The Magistrate is the lower court. Appeals go from there to the District Court. From there one can appeal to the Supreme Court. If there is a human rights question or case against the government, a case can skip the lower courts & go right to the Supremes. The plaintiff does not need standing to bring a complaint. The guide said the justices tend to be liberal & are frequently in battle with the Orthodox rabbis & Netanyahu. Thus, the Israeli Supreme Court hears 10,000 cases a year as opposed to our Supreme Court hearing around 100.
We diverged from the tour when we started to talk about the political situation in Israel. The guide was as discouraged as we. The two state solution seems to be dead. The settlements are bad, but he said it's a sideshow the world is using as a diversion. Even if settlement building stopped & land was returned, Palestinians still wouldn't recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel. And he isn't religious. Not even a kippah wearer.
He asked where we were from. He recognized Cleveland as the home of Demjanjuk who was deported to Israel to be tried for crimes as a Nazi collaborator . The conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, & he was released. That's when Germany stepped in, tried, & convicted him. He died in Germany while awaiting appeal. The guide had heard of Blatt, the Cav's coach & LeBron. Couldn't not ask.
We lunched at Cinema City then walked through the Wohl Rose Garden (now roseless) to the Israel Museum. We wanted to see the Goya exhibit on loan from the Prado (just ok) & Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art. Jews not accepting Jesus as Savior has been a source of anti-Semitism for centuries. In this exhibit, he is portrayed as the Jew & catalyst he was. Provocative.
If our bus ride back to the apartment had been our first here, we would have never gotten on another bus again. The driver was jerky & swerved more than usual. We both were nauseated at the end and glad to get off. We'd planned on coffee and a pastry before we walked home from the bus stop, but skipped it.
Tomorrow we meet Ellyn & Stuart for lunch then pack.
Toby
We got to the Supreme Court too early for the tour, but had a chance to walk over the pedestrian bridge to Cinema City. It's a high-rise movie multiplex built around a shopping mall with restaurants. We sipped coffee at McDonald’s & plotted where we'd eat lunch.
The first order of business before our tour was checking out the bathrooms. I found them & also the way to the bomb shelter. Steel doors with crank closings like on a submarine added a sense of security & spookiness.
We were handed an overview of the courts in English from a rack with several different languages. I didn't recognize one. It was Ethiopian. Of course. Our guide was from France but had been in Israel 30 years. As the only two on the tour, he gave us his undivided attention for 1 1/2 hours. My brain runneth over.
The Israeli justice system borrows from Ottoman (Shariah) law (after 400 years of occupation), British law (end of WWI until 1948), & Jewish law. The austerely modern building of planes and circles reflects the philosophy that the law is rigid & man made (straight lines), but justice comes from the heavens (circular windows admitting light).
They opted not to use a jury system preferring professionals to render decisions. Everyone is entitled to representation regardless of whether or not they're citizens. The court is three-tiered. The Magistrate is the lower court. Appeals go from there to the District Court. From there one can appeal to the Supreme Court. If there is a human rights question or case against the government, a case can skip the lower courts & go right to the Supremes. The plaintiff does not need standing to bring a complaint. The guide said the justices tend to be liberal & are frequently in battle with the Orthodox rabbis & Netanyahu. Thus, the Israeli Supreme Court hears 10,000 cases a year as opposed to our Supreme Court hearing around 100.
We diverged from the tour when we started to talk about the political situation in Israel. The guide was as discouraged as we. The two state solution seems to be dead. The settlements are bad, but he said it's a sideshow the world is using as a diversion. Even if settlement building stopped & land was returned, Palestinians still wouldn't recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel. And he isn't religious. Not even a kippah wearer.
He asked where we were from. He recognized Cleveland as the home of Demjanjuk who was deported to Israel to be tried for crimes as a Nazi collaborator . The conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, & he was released. That's when Germany stepped in, tried, & convicted him. He died in Germany while awaiting appeal. The guide had heard of Blatt, the Cav's coach & LeBron. Couldn't not ask.
We lunched at Cinema City then walked through the Wohl Rose Garden (now roseless) to the Israel Museum. We wanted to see the Goya exhibit on loan from the Prado (just ok) & Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art. Jews not accepting Jesus as Savior has been a source of anti-Semitism for centuries. In this exhibit, he is portrayed as the Jew & catalyst he was. Provocative.
If our bus ride back to the apartment had been our first here, we would have never gotten on another bus again. The driver was jerky & swerved more than usual. We both were nauseated at the end and glad to get off. We'd planned on coffee and a pastry before we walked home from the bus stop, but skipped it.
Tomorrow we meet Ellyn & Stuart for lunch then pack.
Toby
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