Following a year of delays and evasion, the Central Election Committee has finally admitted this week that it does not maintain signed protocols for its meetings, headed by the Chairs - Justices of the Supreme Court. For sub-committees - e.g., the Tender Committee and the Exemptions Committee - lawful, signed protocols are maintained. However, there are no protocols for the Presidency and Plenary Meetings.
Nothing new about it... Justices of the Supreme Court have apparently adopted in the Central Election Committee their pattern of conduct in the Supreme Court itself. There are no signed protocols for any of the Supreme Court hearings, in patent violation of the law. Additionally, all Supreme Court decisions and judgments since 2002 bear a disclaimer: "subject to editing and phrasing changes". Such circumstances are deemed by international legal scholars "serious deterioration in integrity of law and justice agencies", where "validity and integrity and of any legal and judicial records of Israel should be deemed dubious at best."
As determined by Ombudsman of the Judiciary in the Judge Varda Alshech "fabricated protocols affair" - an unsigned protocol is merely an invalid "draft", and the maintenance of unsigned protocols is the conduct underlying the "fabrications".
Following this weeks FOIA responses, an additional FOIA request was filed last night with the Central Election Committee. The request was designated 03-2019, and it seeks copies of authentic Committee records, signed by the respective Chairs of the Committee, certifying the outcomes of the 2013 and 2014 general elections.
Read more: https://human-rights-alert.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-03-12-do-supreme-court-justices.html
Figures. Chairs of the Central Election Committee: 2013 election - Justice Elyakim Rubinstein; 2015 election - Justice Salim Joubran; 2019 election - Justice Hanan Melcer. Do Supreme Court justices fabricate also the general elections outcomes?
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Figure. Signature box on a page of a Polling Station Protocol, shows that three (3) signatures are required: Chair of the Polling Station Committee, Deputy Chair of the Polling Station Committee, and a Member of the Committee.
■ ■ ■
Tel-Aviv, March 12 - last night a new FOIA request was filed with the Central Election Committee - requesting a copy of an authentic document, signed by then Chair of the Committee (Supreme Court justice), which certifies the outcomes of the 2013 and 2015 general elections (see copy of the FOIA request below).This morning, the Committee confirmed receipt of the FOIA request, which was designated 03-2019.
Circumstances, where there is no formal certification of the general election outcome by the Chair of the General Election Committee may sound incredible or impossible. Absent such authentic record, which certifies the outcome of the general election, there is serious concern that the regime of the State of Israel in recent years lacks legal foundation: composition of the Knesset, Knesset decisions and legislative actions, appointment of the ruling government, judicial appointments, appointments of IDF Chief of Staff, Shin-Bet and Mossad Heads...
Regardless of such extreme implications, there is a reasonable concern of such conduct in the Central Election Committee. A series of FOIA requests over the past 2 years, as well as a series of State Ombudsman's reports since 2007, [1] document unreasonable conduct of the Committee in various areas, particularly in matters related to development, implementation and operation of "Democracy" - IT system of the Committee, which is used for polling data processing... [2]
In FOIA responses, which have been received this week, following a year of delays and evasion, the Committee finally admitted that there are no signed protocols of the Committee meetings, which are headed by the Chairs - justices of the Supreme Court. In contrast, for sub-committees - e.g., the Tender Committee and the Exemptions Committee - there are lawfully signed protocols. Howver, for the Presidency and Plenary Meetings - which are headed by the Chairs - there are no signed protocols. [3]
Circumstances where justices of the Supreme Court routinely refuse to maintain valid legal and judicial records, and insist on maintaining invalid records, is not unheard of. The justices continue to violate the law by refusing the maintain signed hearing protocols in the Supreme Court itself. The justices continue such conduct even following a petition in the Supreme Court itself, where in a 2008 Judgement, the Supreme Court agreed to start maintaining signed, valid protocols. Also in 2008, the Knesset passed a special amendment to the Courts Act, which explicitly prescribed that the Supreme Court maintain valid, signed protocols. [3]
The Judge Varda Alshech "fabricated protocols affair" was also based on the maintenance of unsigned protocols. In that affair, Ombudsman of the Judiciary Justice (ret) Eliezer Goldberg and Judge Varda Alshech were in agreement: The fabricated protocols were unsigned, and therefore were merely invalid "drafts"... (Decision 88/12/Tel-Aviv District)
Moreover, the Ombudsman's decision cites Judge Varda Alshech, who argues in her defense that justices of the Supreme Court engage in similar conduct... The Ombudsman responds: "She is referring to a higher authority..."
In November 2018 this writer was invited to a colloquium of European law professors in the Goettingen University Law School. The subject of the colloquium was "Cyber and Law", and the invitation was for in depth discussion of Human Rights Alert -NGO submission, which was incorporated into the UN Human Rights Council 2018 periodic report on Israel with the following note:
24. HRA-NGO highlighted the serious deterioration in integrity of law and justice agencies as a consequence of the implementation of e-government systems. It affirmed that the validity and integrity of any legal and judicial records of Israel should be deemed dubious at best.■ Is it possible that outcomes of the recent general elections are "fabrications"? Merely "drafts"? "subject to editing and phrasing changes"?
■ note: Is it possible that justices of the Supreme Court undermine procedures and institutions of the democratic regime?
■ note: Conduct of justices of the Supreme Court as Chairs of the Central Election Committee fails to strengthen public trust in the general election process. Au contraire...
LINKS
[1] 2007-02-16 הכנסת מוחקת את הכתם של ועדת הבחירות
יו"ר הכנסת החליטה לפנות ממשכן הכנסת את ועדת הבחירות שיושבת בו שנים בעקבות דו"ח חמור של מבקר המדינה על התנהלות הוועדה. לא עזרו לראשי הוועדה מאמצי השדלנות לבטל את הגירושין. בסתר לבם הם ידעו כי במו ידיהם גרמו למשבר הזה
[2] 2019-03-08 מחשוב ועדת הבחירות המרכזית ושופטי בית המשפט העליון - אי כשירות, זילות החוק ו/או מרמה
[3] 2019-03-10 מחשוב ועדת הבחירות : שופטי בית המשפט העליון- היו"רים - פברקו פרוטוקולים, ומה עם "האלגוריתם" הסודי ל"העמסת המעטפות הכפולות"?
FOIA request 03-2019, filed last night
March
11,
2019
Attorney
Elad
Naveh, FOIA Officer
Central
Election Committee
Jerusalem
By
email:
hofeshmeida , eladn
By
fax: 02-5669855
RE:
FOIA
request
–
certification
of the outcome of the general election 2013, 2015
Dear
Attorney Naveh :
Please
accept instant Freedom of Information Request. Please confirm
receipt by return email, including a duly designated FOIA request
number.
I.
Requester
Name:
Joseph Zernik, Human
Rights Alert – NGO (AR 80654598)
ID:
Address:
PO
Box 33407, Tel Aviv, Israel
Fax:
077-3179186
II.
Requested Information
Responses
to previous FOIA requests,
pertaining to protocols
of the Central Election Committee, showed that there were
no duly signed protocols of the Presidency and Plenary Meetings,
meetings in which the Chairs – justices of the Supreme Court –
participated.
Following
up on the information outlined
above, instant request is for copies of authentic records of the
Central Election Committee as follows:
1.
A copy of any authentic record, signed by then Chair of the Central
Election Committee, which certifies the outcome
of the election for the 20th
Knesset, which took place on Tuesday, March 17, 2015.
2.
A copy of any authentic record, signed by then Chair of the Central
Election Committee, which certifies the outcome
of the election for the 19th
Knesset, which took place on Tuesday, January 22, 2013.
III.
Payment:
Post
Office receipt
of fee payment
is attached, Ref:
54894161-6.
Truly,
_______________
Joseph
Zernik, PhD
Human
Rights Alert – NGO (AR 80654598)
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