Human Rights Alert (NGO)

Joseph Zernik, PhD

PO Box 31440, Jerusalem 91313
josephzernik@humanrightsalertngo.org

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91313 3144 "

12-12-12 Judicial Corruption in Israel scholarly studies

The published data indicates substantial increase in judicial corruption and perception
of judicial corruption in Israel over recent decades. With it, state agencies and others
appear to deny existence of the problem.
1) The Development of Political Corruption: A Case Study of Israel
Simcha Bloch
The paper emphasizes the effects of various societal forces on the development of corruption.
The study of these factors contributes to an understanding of how corruption can thrive in
countries with high levels of political development. Three stages of the life-cycle of corruption
have been identified in Israel, which serves as a case study. The embryonic stage is associated
with foreign domination of Palestine. The period after Israel became independent and until 1967
marks the development stage of corruption, when inhibiting and stimulating forces intermingled
and produced white corruption, which was rationalized, condoned and allowed to prevail. The
period since 1967 evidences the maturation of corruption. In this period, inhibiting forces of
corruption are declining, while catalyzing forces of corruption are accentuating. The result is
numerous scandals of black corruption that upset the political system.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14679248.1983.tb01357.x/abstract;jsessionid=FDFB68693DE2028B2515FD1D6044C728.d01t01?sy
stemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+on+15+December+from+10%3A0013%3A00+GMT+%2805%3A0008%3A00+EST%29+for+essential+maintenance&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCus
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2) The Development of Political Corruption in Israel
Simcha Werner
http://www.google.co.il/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fiVeXlICtcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA251&dq=Judicial+corruption,+Israel&ots=sRh3SENCBn&sig=0yoIjs4KINY
CZk1d00hpk5ZGKDw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Judicial%20corruption%2C%20Israel&f=fals
e
3) Judicial Independence and Accountability in Israel
Shimon Shetreet
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=75B653AACC585D42DB42D23
2DC2B46AD.journals?fromPage=online&aid=1506072
4) Is Israel as corrupt as it seems?
Sliding corruption ranking indicates public discontent, but expert says negative
perception could be false
Shiri Hadar
Published: 07.10.12, 23:48 / Israel News
In light of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent stint in the courtroom and other
indictments and allegations brought against top Israeli politicians, experts are pondering
whether the Jewish state is as corrupt as it sometimes comes off.

Israel has slid down to 36th place on Transparency International's Corruption Perception
Index last December the country's lowest ranking yet. The Berlin-based organization scores
183 countries each year based on how corrupt their public sectors are seen to be. The country
which ranks first is considered the least corrupt.
Related articles:

Olmert exonerated of corruption charges

AG: Decision on Lieberman case within weeks
CPI: Israel more corrupt than ever

The fact that the Jewish state has dropped six spots on the index compared to the previous
year is a powerful indicator that the Israeli public is becoming increasingly frustrated with what
they consider as shady dealings on the part of their elected officials.
The development isn't surprising, perhaps, considering that Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman has been under criminal investigation for fraud, breach of trust and money
laundering, among other allegations. And Olmert himself on Tuesday was found guilty of breach
of trust although the conviction paled in comparison to the corruption charges of which he was
acquitted.
Overeager prosecutors
But a senior political science professor at Tel Aviv University suggested that the negative
perception of lawmakers could be unmerited.
Professor Yossi Shain, who penned "The Language of Corruption and Israel's Moral Culture,"
asserted that the State Prosecutor's Office was too hasty to indict Olmert.
"It has been proved yet again that the urge to fight corruption sometimes overpowers any actual
wrongdoing," Shain told Ynet, referring to the former leader's exoneration, which sent
shockwaves across Israel's justice system on Tuesday. "This overeager approach has brought
down an Israeli government, which isn't a trivial matter. The democratic process has been
compromised."
According to Shain, the overzealous attitude has turned into a prevalent trend. The professor
asserted that an influential group is responsible for "taking over the public discourse and
presenting politics as a corrupt sphere by using legal means and the media."
Israel doesnt fare any worse than other democratic nations, like France, Shain noted.
"Chirac was convicted,Sarkozy was investigated, but no one is saying that these democratic
states are on the verge of collapse," he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253920,00.html
5) Israel's Supreme Court: Still making up its own mind
IN: Global Corruption Report 2007: Corruption in Judicial Systems
Although the judicial branch in Israel does notsuffer from systemic corruption, isolated cases
of judicial impropriety, coupled with the perceptionthat political forces have attempted to
influenceimportant decisions, have undermined confi-dence in the institution.
1 According to the ombudsman for judges in 2005,no complaints of corruption have ever beenreceived
against members of the judiciary.
2 Bribery is rare and there are mechanisms inplace to isolate judges from party politics.
Thereare a few limitations to judicial independence,however. First, four of the nine members of
thejudgesselectioncommitteearepoliticalrepresen-tatives. Secondly, over the past decade a growingnumberof
politicianshavemadestatementsattacking the Supreme Court and questioning itsdecisions in controversial
cases.Under former Supreme Court president AharonBarak, the court became known for its
proactivestance.

Under Barak the Court limited the pre-viously unlimited latitude given to police onwhether or not
to approve demonstrations; for-bade the use of physical pressure in the investi-gation of
terrorist activity; and challenged thestatus of security considerations. His rulings onthe socalled separation fence with Palestineobliged the state to change the barriers routedue to the
harm it would cause residents in vari-ous communities and terminated the so-calledneighbour
procedure by which the army warnedPalestinians of the imminent demolition of theirhomes by sending a
neighbour as messenger.Barak encouraged the state prosecution to applycriminal law in
situations of conflict of interestinvolving senior officials.
http://es.scribd.com/doc/29013250/Corruption-in-Judiciary#page=275
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7) Judicial Review and Political Accountability: The Case of the High Court of Justice in
Israel;
Dotan, Yoav
32 Isr. L. Rev. 448 (1998)
http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/israel32
&div=23&id=&page=
8) 37 percent think Israeli courts are corrupt
Quarter of public believes bribes buy fair trials; Israel corrupt, but Syria, Lebanon, Iran
even worse, says international survey
Aviram Zino
Published: 05.24.07, 15:02 / Israel News
A survey published on Thursday revealed disturbing figures: 37 percent of Israelis believe that
the Israeli court system is corrupt.
The survey was commissioned by the Israeli branch of Transparency International (TI), a
leading international, non-governmental organization addressing corruption.
The focus of this year's TI report was judicial systems around the world. The Israeli survey,
conducted by Gallop, revealed that 77 percent of Israeli citizens believed that the Israeli court
system was slow and inefficient.
Only 47 percent said they believed that the courts were fair. Some 24 percent of the participants
said that somebody in the system must be bought off if you want a fair trial.
Participants were asked to grade the level of corruption at various establishments in Israel (one
to five, where five is most corrupt). The educational, courts and health system, the police, public

services and the tax authority were all graded between 2.6 and 3.3, with the police graded as
most corrupt.
Less corrupt than Iran
Professor Joseph Gross, chairman of SHVIL, TI's Israeli branch, said that Israel was ranked
number 34 among 163 countries assessed for the international corruption index. "Israel
received the grade 5.9 out of 10 (the least corrupt).
"Israel is less corrupt than other countries in the region. Other Middle Eastern countries range
from 5.3 (Jordan) to 2.7 (Iran). The countries rated as least corrupt were Scandivian countries
with a 9.5 grade, Switzerland with 8.6, Germany with 8.0 and the US with 7.3.
Susanne Tam, SHVIL's CEO, added that "one of the questions that arise from these results is:
Does the fact that the public has the notion that everything is corrupt, influence their outlook on
judges and the court system. The results are upsetting. They must bring the system to the
realization that there is a problem."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3403994,00.html
9) Juries, Judges, and Corruption: A Cross-National Analysis
Stan Hok-Wui Wong, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract:
Earlier studies argue that British common law is correlated with lower levels of perceived
corruption. But the common law tradition is complex, and its various judicial institutions may
have different effects on corruption. This article specifically examines how two judicial
institutionsjury trials and professional judgeshipaffect the control of corruption. Crossnational data show that jury trials are associated with lower perceived corruption, whereas
professional judgeships are associated with higher perceived corruption. The results
demonstrate that it is the common law institutions, and not the common law itself, that predict
perceived corruption.
http://mesharpe.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,5;j
ournal,23,36;linkingpublicationresults,1:110915,1
10) Corruption again, and again not decisive
Ira Sharkansky
Abstract
Corruption was prominent in the run-up to the 2009 election, but did not affect the outcome.
Two candidates accused of corruption, Benyamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, led their
parties to greater success than in the election of 2006. The candidate claiming to be free
of corruption, Tzipi Livni, led her party to the most seats in Knesset, but not enough to
overcome Netanyahu's advantage of allies. Complicating the analysis of corruption and the
election outcome is the fuzziness in the key concept. Corruption means different things to
different communities and individuals. Israel is not free of corruption, but neither is it clearly
more corrupt than other western democracies. Citizens may be inured to a chronic, but tolerable
level of corruption, so that they do not consider it essential to guiding their votes.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537120903462084
11) Accomplices in U.S. Judicial Corruption: Costliest Legacy of the Clinton Presidency;
Mueller, Charles E.
No nation's antimonopoly can succeed if its judiciary oppose it. In the US that means the first
job of a president's antitrust leadership is to educate the country's 1000 federal judges on the
goernment's antimonopoly program and its benefits to the American public. Clinton has
followed the exact opposite policy. His appointees to our two anti-trust agencies have made
themselves accomplices in the intelectual capture of the national judiciary.
http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/antlervi29&di
v=33&id=&page=
12) Judicial Review a comparative study: Israel, Canada and the United States.
Round panel discussion, including Prof Daniel Friedman from Israel, who proposed legistlation
to remedy, what some view as serious problems with judicial review in Israel.

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/cdozo31&div
=74&id=&page=
13) Corrupted Courts: A Cross-National Perceptual Analysis of Judicial Corruption
Kathleen Barrett
Abstract
This thesis examines the factors that influence perceptions of judicial corruption. A statistical
analysis using data from such sources as Transparency International, the World Bank, and
Freedom House demonstrates that aspects of accountability (the ability to remove judges) and
transparency (freedom of the press) are only weakly related to perceptions of judicial corruption.
A systematic country comparison shows that the structure of the judicial system explains
variations in perceived judicial corruption.
http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/political_science_theses/2/