The real people harmed by Israel’s judicial coup

The Arab man who couldn't purchase a home, the asylum-seeker jailed without trial, the same-sex couple that couldn't adopt. Behind the judicial overhaul are human lives in the balance.

Sigalit Moisa, a single mother of five children – including one with Down syndrome who needed special breathing equipment – had amassed huge debts after her divorce, including to the Israel Electric Corporation.

In 2019, Moisa and three others filed a lawsuit claiming the Electric Corporation policies were unreasonable.

In January 2022, on one of the coldest days of the year, the panel of justices hearing the case released its decision, which opened with the words, “Let there be light.” Justice Daphne Barak-Erez noted in it that under the law, electricity is a basic need, and that it is impossible to live reasonably without it. She ruled that there must be an option to prevent it from being disconnected due to severe financial distress. “In the modern age, electricity is akin to oxygen,” she wrote.

 Moisa is one of many petitioners who may have faced a different outcome under the current law which abolishes the reasonableness standard.

Leah Shakdiel petitioned the court for the right to sit on the Religious Council and overturned its exclusion of women. Arab-Israeli Mohammed "Hamudi" Aburabia ensured a construction company was heavily fined for discriminating against him. Bereaved parent Roni Hirshenson prevented the government from banning Palestinians from attending a joint Parents Circle – Families Forum memorial service.

Gay couple Shay Gortler and Shahar Globerman used the court to enforce their right to adopt a child.  Asylum-seeker Anwar Suleiman successfully appealed against an amendment to the law permitting detention of asylum-seekers without trial in prison.

Israel’s High Court is hearing petitions against the first law in the judicial overhaul, passedon July 24. The law abolishes the reasonableness standard, giving Israeli politicians unprecedented power to pass legislation without judicial oversight.