Benjamin Halevy (; 6 May 1910 – 7 August 1996) was an Israeli judge and politician.

Biography

Halevy was born Ernst Levi in Weissenfels,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and educated at the Universities of Freiburg,

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

to what was then British

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

in 1933 after

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

became

Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal Cabinet of Germany, government of Germany. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Government of Germany, ...

, and studied at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Halevy was a Magistrate Judge in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

during the Mandate period, from 1938 until Israel's

declaration of independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

in 1948. He served as a District Judge and the President of the Jerusalem District Court until 1963 when he was appointed to the

Supreme Court of Israel The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

. Halevy was the sole judge in what became known as the "

Kastner trial ''The Attorney-General of the Government of Israel v. Malchiel Gruenwald'', commonly known as the Kastner trial, was a libel case in Jerusalem, Israel. Hearings were held from 1 January to October 1954 in the District Court of Jerusalem before Judg ...

," a libel lawsuit against

Malchiel Gruenwald Malchiel Gruenwald (; also written Grünwald, Gruenvald, and Greenwald) (1882–1968) was an Israeli hotelier, amateur journalist, and stamp collector, who came to public attention in 1953, when he accused an Israeli government employee, Rudolf ...

, a hotelier, who accused Rudolf Kastner of having been a Nazi collaborator. Halevy allowed the scope of the trial to be expanded and ruled that Kastner had indeed, in his words, "sold his soul to the devil." Kastner was later assassinated and Halevy's ruling was mostly overturned by the Supreme Court. The manner in which he conducted the trial was criticized. Halevy was the sole judge at the trial of the

Kafr Qasim massacre The Kafr Qasim massacre took place in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim on 29 October 1956, when the Israel Border Police killed 49 Palestinian civilians, including 19 men, 6 women and 23 children. Israeli forces had imposed a curfew on th ...

's perpetrators, and in his decision famously wrote, "The distinguishing mark of a manifestly illegal order is that above such an order should fly, like a black flag, a warning saying: 'Prohibited!'" He was later a judge at the

trial of Adolf Eichmann The Eichmann trial was the 1961 trial of major Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann who was captured in Argentina by Israeli agents and brought to Israel to stand trial. Eichmann was a senior Nazi party member and served at the rank of ''Oberst ...

, along with Yitzhak Raveh and

Moshe Landau Moshe Landau (; 29 April 1912 – 1 May 2011) was an Israeli judge. He served on the Supreme Court of Israel from 1953 until his retirement in 1982. Landau was the fifth President of the Supreme Court, from 1980 to 1982. Described as one of Isr ...

. In 1969 Halevy resigned from the court in order to enter politics. He was elected to the Seventh Knesset for the

Gahal Gahal (, an acronym for ''Gush Herut–Liberalim'' (Hebrew: ), ''lit.'' ''Freedom–Liberals Bloc'') was the main right-leaning political alliance in Israel, ranging from the centre-right to right-wing, from its founding in 1965 until the establi ...

(Herut-Liberal Bloc) list, and again to the

Eighth Knesset Legislative elections were held in Israel on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 79%.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p125 The election was postponed for two months because ...

in 1973 after Gahal had merged into

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

. He later left the party to sit as an independent MK. In the

1977 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1977. Africa * 1977 Afars and Issas Constituent Assembly election * 1977 Algerian legislative election * 1977 Gambian general election * 1976–1977 Guinea-Bissau legislative election * 1977 Malagasy ...

, he was returned to the Knesset on Dash's list, but the party split up after a year, and Halevy joined the

Democratic Movement Democratic Movement may refer to: *Brazilian Democratic Movement *Democratic Movement (France) *Democratic Movement (Israel) *Democratic Movement (Italy) *Democratic Italian Movement *Democratic Movement (San Marino) *Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzst ...

, before leaving to again sit as an independent. During the Ninth Knesset he also served as deputy speaker. Today a street in his birthplace Weissenfels is named after him. He was married for many years to Luba. They had a son and daughter. After Luba's death he married Michal Halevy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halevy, Benjamin 1910 births 1996 deaths University of Göttingen alumni 20th-century Israeli judges Judges of the Supreme Court of Israel Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine Democratic Movement (Israel) politicians Democratic Movement for Change politicians Likud politicians Gahal politicians People from Weißenfels People from the Province of Saxony Adolf Eichmann Members of the 7th Knesset (1969–1974) Members of the 8th Knesset (1974–1977) Members of the 9th Knesset (1977–1981) Deputy speakers of the Knesset Immigrants of the Fifth Aliyah

Biography

See also

References

External links