Commission's chairman, retired judge Eliyahu Winograd
Photo: Tomeriko
Theatre of the absurd
High Court's interference in Winograd Commission's work unreasonable
Beyond the legal jargon and ego games, it would be worthwhile to pause for a moment and ask what the controversy involving the Winograd Commission and the High Court of Justice was all about.
Ultimately, the debate revolved around the question of whether the Winograd Commission protocols would be publicized before or after publication of its interim report.
An innocent citizen may well ask: Is this what the High Court should be handling in a democratic state? Could a situation whereby a Knesset member from the opposition refers to the High Court asking it to order a legally appointed committee to publish its protocols happen in a democratic state? Can the High Court – which naturally never publishes its session protocols and is not planning to do so – really argue that it is protecting the rule of law, while clearly it is serving as a political tool in the hands of the opposition?
Knesset member Zehava Gal-On's referral to the High Court can certainly be understood, although we should hope that she is aware that in law-abiding democratic countries members of parliament do not use the court for political gains.
Her objective was clear: She called for the publication of the protocols prior to the publication of the intermediary report so that she – and her colleagues in the opposition – would interpret the protocols as they saw fit before the report is made public, and in so doing would create the public atmosphere for discussion of the conclusions; if the report is not to their liking, they would have the tools to criticize and annul it in advance.
Politically loaded issue
To put it simply, not exactly in legalese, this is called obstruction of justice. I too believe that this cabinet should quit in light of its failure in the Second Lebanon War, but not all means in doing so are bona fide.
There are democratic and parliamentary procedures and Knesset members shouldn't get smart and devise ways to bypass the Knesset and democracy in order to bring about their desired outcome despite not having a Knesset majority. I know this is difficult, yet this is the nature of democracy.
And the High Court itself, after rightfully rejecting the petitions against establishing the Winograd Commission, would have done well had it rejected outright the petitions to interfere in the commission's procedures even prior to publication of the interim report.
Once the report is published, the parliamentarian, public and legal route would obviously be open for petitions.
Meanwhile, it may be worthwhile for the High Court to avoid dealing with such a politically loaded issue and to devote its time and energy to all those criminal and civil petitions that have been sitting on the shelves for so long. This too is the High Court's business, after all – not just daily, in-depth management of the State. We should keep this in mind once in a while.
