ShareThisThree human rights organizations, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel withdrew today their principle petition that they submitted to the High Court of Justice (HCJ). This was done in protest of the Court's unprecedented and invalid majority decision by the nine judge panel to base their decision on the constitutionality of a law on secret evidence presented by Israel's General Security Service (GSS) and heard ex-parte, in the absence of the petitioners.
The petitioning organizations explained that the Court's decision has no legal basis and is in contradiction to previous HCJ judgments. The organizations pointed out that this decision sets a dangerous precedent which significantly harms future possibilities for judicial review of laws that violate human rights.
Despite the damaging consequences of this law, of which even the State acknowledges its severity, the organizations decided to withdraw the petition and announce their decision in the course of the hearing. This is because of the unprecedented decision by the Court to decide on the Constitutionality of a law based on information privy only to the GSS and withheld from the petitioners and from the public. The organizations' representatives announced in front of the judges that they cannot be parties to such an improper legal process in which the constitutionality of a law that violates human rights is deliberated based on classified evidence.
