Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz fiercely attacked the justice system in Israel yesterday evening. Steinitz was speaking at the closing session of the annual “Globes” Israel Business Conference.

Steinitz stressed the importance of discipline in economic planning to strengthen Israel’s economy, and called the court system and the High Court of Justice “spendthrifts”.

”In recent years, the trend has grown of court rulings that involve huge expenditure, with huge economic consequences. The courts hand down rulings that lead to spending of hundreds of millions, sometimes billions, of shekels out of the public purse,” Steinitz said.

”The courts ignore economic factors,” he continued. As an example, he cited a ruling on land betterment tax that deprived the state of NIS 2 billion annually. “These are revenues that are deducted from the state budget,” Steinitz said, adding, “Think what could be done with that revenue.”

He also attacked the “scandalous” ruling on recognizing child care payments for income tax purposes, saying that this ruling, had it been confirmed, “would have caused damage of NIS 2-6 billion a year, every year. How can they ignore economic considerations like that?”

Steinitz did not stop there. “Some High Court of Justice decisions show lack of responsibility that borders on economic anarchy,” he said. “It is the Knesset that is authorized to set economic policy, not the courts. It is impossible to run economic policy this way, particularly not in times of crisis. The judges have no wallet, and they are not the ones who have to worry about where the budget will come from.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 15, 2009

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