In Israel every bill is authorized by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation before being voted on in the Knesset. The Committee is comprised of several ministers, and is headed by the Justice Minister. This Committee meets once a week following the Cabinet meeting and examines new bill proposals; both governmental proposals and ones proposed by Knesset members. This committee presents the government's viewpoint to the bill.
In recent weeks attorneys and financial experts from the Legal Forum received the agenda of the Committee meetings in advance and prepared professional opinions regarding the bill proposals that relate to strategic issues: security, the economy, policy and matters relating to Israel's Jewish character.
One interesting bill proposed recently relates to applying the Refugee Convention in Israel. Currently Israel is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention which states that every refugee is entitled to seek asylum. This bill proposal is intended to prevent a situation where the State of Israel will be required to defend itself from waves of uncontrollable immigration. Behind this proposal are those who wish to undermine the existence of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. The Legal Forum criticized this proposal with a detailed and critical legal opinion which provided evidence that this proposal will be calamitous for the State of Israel. The bill proposal was sent to all members of the Committee but did not receive support from the Committee.
Another bill proposal that was put forward relates to the annexation of the Jordan Valley to the State of Israel. In this case again the Legal Forum prepared a brief legal opinion supporting the proposal in accordance with international law. This proposal was supported by the Committee and will now be brought before the Knesset.
It is clear that the public atmosphere affects the Ministers decisions and therefore it is of the utmost importance to present grounded professional arguments, which are not influenced by populist opinions. The Legal Forum's obligation as a professional and responsible organization is to provide the Ministers with the professional information required in order to determine a decision which will be in the best interest of the State of Israel from a national Zionist perspective.
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