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Dorit Beinisch (; born February 28, 1942) is a retired Israeli jurist. She was the 9th
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
of 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 ...
. Appointed on September 14, 2006, after the retirement of
Aharon Barak Aharon Barak (; born 16 September 1936) is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and bef ...
, she served in this position until February 28, 2012. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court.


Background

Dorit Werba was born in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. Her father, Aharon Werba, a civil servant, immigrated to
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
from
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
in 1933. Her mother, Chava, was a kindergarten teacher in Tel Aviv. Beinisch served in the
Israeli Defense Forces Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...
, where she reached the rank of
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
. She studied law 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. ...
, completing her Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B.) in 1967. Two years later she completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.), ''
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'', at the same university, while apprenticing in the Justice Ministry. In 1964, she married Yeheskell Beinisch, a Jerusalem lawyer. They have two daughters and five grandchildren. Beinisch was awarded honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in June 2010, and Ben-Gurion University in May 2012, as well as an Honorary Fellowship by The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. On November 12, 2012, she was awarded Doctor of Philosophy "honoris causa" degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science. Beinisch was awarded "Doctor of Humane Letters-Honoris Causa"by The "Hebrew Union College"Jerusalem, on November 14th,2012. Dorit Beinisch is a member as an Officer at The French "National Order of the Legion of Honour" since December 17, 2012. On December 30, 2012, Beinisch was awarded as a knight of The Movement for Quality Government in Israel. On May 8, 2013, Beinisch was awarded "Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem". On June 13, she was awarded "Honorary Fellowship" by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College. In May 2015 Beinisch received an honorary award from The Holon Technological Institute. Beinisch was nominated in May 2013 as The Chancellor of the Open University of Israel and chairwoman of its Council. In March 2023, Beinisch was named as “honorary citizen of Tel Aviv -Yaffo”. From 2012–2014, she taught a seminar on national security judging at the Center on Law and Security (CLS) with Samuel Rascoff and Andrew Weissmann at NYU Law as a distinguished global fellow and a senior fellow. Beinisch is a critic of the Israeli government’s judicial reform initiative, citing that it threatens the independence of the judiciary.


Legal career

Beinisch joined the
Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
in 1967, doing her legal internship in the legislation department. She served in the Ministry of Justice for 28 years, holding senior positions to which women in Israel had never been appointed before.


State Attorney’s Office (1967–1995)

Between 1967 and 1969, Beinisch served as Assistant in the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office until she completed her master's degree, moving up in 1970 to become Senior Assistant to the State Attorney. From 1976 to 1982, she served as the Director of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law in the State Attorney's Office. She represented the state before the Supreme Court in constitutional and administrative cases. From 1982 through 1988 she served as the Deputy State Attorney. She played an instrumental role in prosecuting some of the state's most difficult cases. She collected evidence for the Kahan commission which investigated the Sabra and Shatila massacre. During the prosecution of the Gush Emunim Underground she received threats to her life. Beinisch served as the State Attorney of Israel from 1989 to 1995, the first woman in Israel to hold this position. In this position, she directed all government litigation in all levels of courts, took part in forming the State's policy in criminal, constitutional and civil fields, and was responsible for all the professional aspects of legal representation of the state of Israel in the courts. She supervised the lengthy investigation, trial and eventual conviction of then Shas Party chairman and former interior minister
Aryeh Deri Aryeh Makhlouf Deri (; ), also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri (born 17 February 1959), is an Israeli politician and one of the founders of the Shas political party who served as the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Health, and Minister ...
. She represented the state before the Supreme Court in significant constitutional, administrative and criminal law cases. For example, in the late 1980s, she headed the struggle in the Supreme Court that led to the banning of the far right-wing Kach party from the
Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...
. She refused to represent
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...
's government in the High Court when a petition was filed against its decision to deport 415 Hamas members to Lebanon. Beinisch fought for her professional and legal views on controversial issues, such as the
Kav 300 affair The Bus 300 affair (), also known as Kav 300 affair, was a 1984 incident in which Shin Bet members executed two Palestinian bus hijackers, immediately after the hostage crisis incident ended and they had been captured. After the incident the Sh ...
in 1984. Appointed to handle the case by then attorney general Yitzhak Zamir, Beinisch, together with two other prosecutors, fought against the government and the Shin Bet to expose lies, resulting in rumors that she was having an affair with one of the Shin Bet agents and threats against her life.


Supreme Court Justice (1995–2005)

Beinisch was appointed as a Justice of Israel's Supreme Court in December 1995. She served as chair of the Central Elections Commission.


President of Supreme Court (2006–2012)

In September 2006 Beinisch was sworn in as President of the Supreme Court of Israel, after being voted in unanimously, becoming the first woman in Israel to hold this position. As President of the Supreme Court, she was the head of the Israeli judiciary and responsible for managing the court system. She believed that one of her primary tasks as President of the Supreme Court was to safeguard the independence of the Israeli court system and ensure its apolitical character. In her rulings, Beinisch emphasized the same principles that she fought for during her public career, together with her belief regarding the role of the Supreme Court in a democratic society to protect human and civil rights, with special attention to the rights of women and children, socially vulnerable populations, and immigrant workers. Beinisch emphasized the importance of judicial review of the activities of the executive branch, including the military, as well as the importance of following the rule of law and the principle of non-discriminatory law enforcement, and preserving every person's right of access to court. On January 27, 2010, Beinisch was injured when a 52-year-old man named Pinchas Cohen hurled his sneaker at her during a hearing on medical marijuana, hitting her between the eyes, breaking her glasses and knocking her off her chair. Cohen was disgruntled with the legal system over a family court decision four years earlier and has a violent history. He was arrested and later apologized for his act, and stated that he hoped she was well.


Landmark rulings

Beinisch has focused on
government corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
and to ensuring that government institutions adhere to the law, with a particular emphasis placed on the Defence Forces, the
police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
and general security services. In 2004 Beinisch criticized the use of expedited legislative mechanisms, often used by the Knesset to legislate various economic laws and reforms. She ruled that although judicial review of the legislative process in Israeli does not recognize a ground of lack of “legislative due process”, the Court would intervene if there is a defect in the legislative process that “goes to the heart of the process.” Such a defect is one that involves a severe and substantial violation of the basic principles of the legislative process in Israel's parliamentary and constitutional system. In a 2006 case concerning a detainee's right to legal counsel, the Supreme Court acquitted a soldier convicted of using drugs on the basis of his own confession, because the military policeman who interrogated him did not inform him of his right to consult with an attorney. In this decision, Beinisch ruled that in view of the normative change in the Israeli legal system introduced by the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, and in the absence of legislation on this issue, the time has come to adopt a case law doctrine of inadmissibility for illegally obtained evidence. She also held that the appropriate doctrine for the Israeli legal system to adopt is not an absolute one, but a relative doctrine which allows the court to exclude illegally obtained evidence at its discretion. In the specific case of the appellant, the failure to inform him of his right to consult a lawyer was intentional, and this was a significant factor in Beinisch's decision to exclude the confessions he made in the interrogation. The same year, in one of her most famous and controversial rulings as a justice, she ruled that parents cannot use corporal punishment, writing that corporal punishment violates the child's right to dignity and bodily integrity. Some of her most important rulings have dealt safeguarding human rights while addressing pressing security needs, primarily in cases concerning Israel's activities in the
occupied Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupi ...
. In a 2005 ruling against the Israeli army's use of “human shields” she concurred with then-President
Aharon Barak Aharon Barak (; born 16 September 1936) is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and bef ...
that the practice of sending in a local Palestinian ahead of Israeli troops during arrest raids endangered his life, violated his free will and his human dignity. In a judgment rendered in September 2007 concerning the separation fence being built by Israel, Beinisch ruled that the military commander did not exercise his discretion in a proportionate manner and that he must alter the route of the fence in regards to a segment near the Palestinian village of
Bil'in Bil'in () is a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, west of the city of Ramallah in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Bil'in had a population of 2,137 in 2017. I ...
. In her judgment, Beinisch accepted the military commander's claim that the fence in Bil'in area was built for reasons of national security. Nevertheless, she held that the military commander had determined the route of the fence while taking into account the future construction plans for new Israeli neighborhoods near this area. These planned neighborhoods do not constitute a vital security need, and hence cannot be taken into account when determining the route of the fence. Thus, Beinisch concluded, the route of the fence in the Bil'in area did not meet the proportionality requirement. In 2007, a petition was brought before the Supreme Court regarding the government's decision to protect the schools in Israeli cities from attacks by “Qassam” rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. In light of this decision, the authorities adopted a protection plan under which only some of the classrooms were protected. Beinisch ruled that the decision not to fully protect the main classrooms of children in grades 4-12 was extremely unreasonable. It was held that the court would intervene — albeit on rare occasions and with restraint — even in decisions concerning the professional discretion of the authority or the budgets allocated by it, if these decisions depart in an extreme manner from the margin of reasonableness given to the administrative authority. In 2008, Beinisch ruled on interpretation of the Unlawful Combatants Law and the extent to which the law is consistent with international humanitarian law. In her leading judgment, she wrote that the administrative detention of an "unlawful combatant" significantly violates his right to personal liberty. This was consistent with the basic outlook that prevails in the Israeli legal system, according to which it is preferable to uphold a statute by interpretive means wherever possible, rather than to declare it void for constitutional reasons. Several appeals were brought before the Supreme Court challenging specific internment orders that were made under the Unlawful Combatants Law. In her leading judgment, Beinisch wrote that there is no doubt that the administrative detention of an “unlawful combatant” significantly violates the right to personal liberty. While holding the law constitutional, she held that in view of the extent of the violation of personal liberty and of the extreme nature of the measure of detention provided in the law, an interpretive effort should be made in order to minimize, in so far as possible, the violation of the right to liberty so that it is commensurate with the need to achieve the security purpose, and not in excess thereof. Beinisch also held that the provisions of the statute should be interpreted, in so far as possible, in a manner consistent with the accepted norms of international law. In 2009, Beinisch issued a precedent-setting ruling on the unconstitutional nature of the privatization of prisons. In this judgement, a panel of nine justices led by Beinisch struck down Amendment 28 to the Prison Ordinance, which calls for the creation of a prison in Israel to be managed and operated by a private corporation. She concluded that the Amendment violates the constitutional rights to personal freedom and human dignity. In her ruling, Beinisch stressed that although Amendment 28 was enacted out of a desire to improve the detention conditions of prisoners in Israel, the main purpose behind the Amendment was an economic one, reflecting a desire to save as much money as possible for the State. In this context, she stressed in her ruling that although the Supreme Court does not generally intervene in the government's and the Knesset's economic policies, when it comes to legislation affecting the most basic constitutional rights, the fact that an economic rationale may have motivated the legislation does not prevent the Court from passing judgment on the law. In May 2012, the court ruled that employers who pay female employees a significantly lower salary than their male counterparts will bear the burden of proof in case they are accused of discrimination, thus strengthening women's workplace rights. In Beinisch's ruling, the High Court stated that a woman suing for discrimination will not have to prove she was deprived of pay because of her gender, but only show there is a significant difference in salaries. At this point, the burden of proof would lie with the employer who, in his part, will have to convince that there is a legitimate reason for the salary and that the employee was not discriminated. Moreover, the High Court recognized that at times, women have less leverage than men at negotiating pay; therefore, claims that a pay was negotiated freely before hiring the worker will not be enough to justify the extensive gaps. Beinisch has also written some remarkable dissenting opinions. In a case dealing with former President of State, Moshe Katzav she held in a minority opinion that the plea-bargain agreement - formulated by the Attorney General and the former President of Israel over sexual abuse charges - should be canceled because the details of that bargain contravened administrative principles and were against the public interest. In another case, Beinisch held, in a minority opinion, that the total ban on political advertisements in television and radio broadcasts is invalid because there is no explicit authorization in the primary legislation for such an excessive limitation on freedom of political expression.


See also

*
Israeli judicial system The judicial system of Israel consists of secular courts and religious courts. The law courts constitute a separate and independent unit of Israel's Ministry of Justice. The system is headed by the President of the Supreme Court and the Minis ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beinisch, Dorit Living people 1942 births Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Israel Lawyers from Tel Aviv Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law alumni Israeli women judges Israeli soldiers State attorneys of Israel First women chief justices