Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., December 18, 2008 Kislev 21, 5769 | | Israel Time: 13:41 (EST+7)   Back to Homepage web haaretz.com Haaretz Toolbar Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate GA 2008 Travel Week's End Anglo File

'There is anarchy here' By Kobi Ben-Simhon Tags: israel news, oded alyagon While wandering among orange and mango trees in his backyard, Oded Alyagon reveals the "snake garden." Dozens of snakes rise up and look at us from knee level; a two-meter-long snake even peers down at us. He made them all with his own hands and scattered them among the flourishing flora and the fruit trees. "I love to sculpt - it's a wonderful way to take out aggression," he explains quietly. "It's fun to work with stones, they're much easier than people. They keep quiet and don't quarrel with you." Since his retirement two-and-a-half years ago, the former president of the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court has devoted himself to this old hobby of sculpture. At the end of the yard, next to a huge wire chicken coop with plump white hens walking about, he wrestles every day with large stones. Between fashioning snakes, human figures and tables covered with mosaic tiles, Alyagon has also worked recently on his first political oeuvre. Already standing proudly alongside the entry path to his house are two snakes devouring one another. He has entitled the work "Israel 2008 - A Situation Report." "That's how I feel," he says slowly, the winter sun caressing his face. "Notice that one snake is painted in the colors of the Israeli flag, and the other is done in the colors of the Palestinian flag. That's a portrayal of the situation in which we are living: We're devouring one another; they are letting our blood and we are letting theirs." Advertisement After almost 40 years in the legal system, as an attorney and a judge, and after many years during which he had to keep his worldview to himself, Alyagon now feels free to speak out and be heard. He feels he was forced to be silent for too long. "In the Yom Kippur War I was in the force that was trapped in a snowstorm on Mount Hermon," he says. "We were trapped for three-and-a-half days, about 70 soldiers on the summit. Many of them suffered from frostbite because we weren't prepared for a long stay in the snow. At a certain point, a squad from the Sayeret Matkal [elite unit] under the command of Yoni Netanyahu was sent to rescue us. They got stuck on the way and one of their men froze to death. In the end we joined up with them and rescued them. Only when the storm ended did a helicopter pilot land, coming out of one hole in a cloud, and take all of us out of there. "We had seen in advance that the storm was approaching and we warned of it repeatedly, but the commanders didn't pay attention to us. When we came down from there I swore to myself that I would never remain silent again if I felt an obligation to cry out." Once again, apparently, the time has come to cry out. Three weeks ago, Alyagon, 68, crossed the lines he thought he would never cross, and presented his candidacy for the Kadima slate for the next Knesset; the party's primary takes place next week. Sitting on the balcony of his home in Kfar Azar, he reveals that it was not easy for him to take this step. "In my heart I felt it would have been much more right and convenient to collect several of my friends, from the Paratroops, from the kibbutzim and moshavim, and establish a new and clean group. A 'pure' group, without politicians with a political past," he says, and adds, "I thought that wherever politicians are involved - that's already not good. But I understood that [starting something new] involved establishing an apparatus, raising money and arrangements that are beyond my power. It's much easier to become part of a party whose basic guidelines more or less suit mine, and to try to fight from within for my opinions." Was there something specific that motivated you to try to enter politics? Alyagon: "The appointment of Daniel Friedmann as justice minister by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. That is one of the things that strongly influenced me to enter the political system. It is definitely an event that spurred me to do something. I thought that I had to react to it." Why? "I have no doubt that Olmert did not appoint him to improve the system, but to teach it a lesson, to put it in its place. When he appointed Friedmann, Olmert was already under investigation by the police; he certainly had read Friedmann's scathing articles in the press criticizing Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch. Olmert had an account to settle with Beinisch. Friedmann's appointment is an example of the way in which the politicians try to castrate the legal system for their own personal interests. A justice minister has to defend the legal system. Friedmann actually chose to defend the prime minister and to attack the system consistently. As someone who is very familiar with the system, I saw what he was doing. Friedmann is a justice minister who destroyed the legal system. It will take us years to repair the damage he has caused." What in particular disturbs you? "The Judicial Appointments Committee, for example, is a substantial issue. The justice minister proposes changing the structure of the committee, removing a judge and adding an MK. If more power is given to the politicians, who have no inhibitions at all, there will be a situation in which they will do whatever they want in the legal system. They will be able to promote whomever they want, because they will have control. If this process continues, within 10 years we will see an entirely different judicial system here." What exactly will we see? "We'll see judges who are obligated to politicians, who are influenced by all kinds of oligarchs. We'll see judges who are obligated to politicians, who are connected to big business. That's what awaits us." Minister Friedmann refused to comment on Alyagon's comments. The Prime Minister's Office provided this response: "Without being dragged into any sort of argument, we would like to express the hope that the rulings handed down by the learned judge had a stronger factual basis than his remarks criticizing the prime minister." For Tzipi's sake The competition between Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz over leadership of Kadima prompted Alyagon to get involved in party activity - to help her get elected. "I decided I wouldn't sit on the sidelines and watch the contest between her and Mofaz, that it was worth my while to pay NIS 50 for party membership so as to express my opinion," he explains. "That was an important turning point, at which not only was the candidate for the leadership of Kadima determined, but perhaps the next prime minister of the country after the Olmert era." For that reason the former judge became a registered member of a political movement for the first time in his life. "Of course, I wasn't thinking then of entering politics, I thought that my activity had ended with supporting Livni. I've always cared what happens, but I never went in for politics. I didn't even respect those who engage in politics, and even today I'm not crazy about them. Far from it." Now Alyagon has decided to become involved with the people he disdains so much: "The decision was made three days before the final date for presenting one's candidacy. I phoned the party secretariat. I was told that this involved bringing 100 signatures of party members and paying NIS 10,000. I didn't understand the idea; at that moment I decided to forget about the whole thing. If I'm a party member, why can't I present my candidacy? And why do I have to pay money? Can only rich people become candidates?" But in the tractor shed of the Wolf household in Kfar Azar, they thought otherwise. "We have a 'parliament' in the village at which the 'tribal elders' meet every morning," says Alyagon with a slight smile. "The Wolf brothers once harvested wheat all over the country, a few years ago they closed the business, but they still come to the shed every day. They are joined by various friends of theirs from the War of Independence, and we talk about everything. They were the ones who let me have it: They thought I should present my candidacy in spite of everything." Alyagon did not coordinate his move with the party's top brass. "I didn't speak to anyone in Kadima - I don't know anyone personally," he says. "I don't have connections. Nor am I joining any camp. The truth is that at first I had no idea how to get 100 signatures. So on one day when the party's council met, I went there. I saw a marketplace: people standing there with lists, telling each other, 'Hey, come and sign for me, I'll sign for you.' They didn't even ask for your name." A marked target In contrast to his pleasant demeanor, Oded Alyagon is often associated with his role in two tumultuous incidents that took place while he was serving as a judge. The first uproar stemmed from things he said at a farewell party for a Magistrate's Court judge in Eilat, in the summer of 1996. In light of the campaign of incitement launched by ultra-Orthodox groups against then-Supreme Court president Aharon Barak - which even included a murder threat - Alyagon said back then: "We are now undergoing difficult times. Against our will we are positioned on the front line, we have become a target for parasites to whom ideas such as the rule of law are utterly alien. These people, who have never contributed a jot to the country, have set themselves the goal of seizing control of the legal system, or intimidating it ... whether due to ignorance or because the existence of the rule of law will prevent them from practicing their parasitic way of life." These remarks, which were quickly dubbed "the parasites speech," aroused furious reactions, mainly on the part of ultra-Orthodox and religious MKs. MK Avraham Ravitz of Degel Hatorah demanded the resignation of Alyagon, "the judge who generalizes and calls an entire community parasites." The ultra-Orthodox daily Yated Neeman compared the judge to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels; MK Shaul Yahalom, then head of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, recommended that in an exceptional step, Alyagon should be called in for a disciplinary hearing. Three years later, this time in parting words to an outgoing Be'er Sheva judge, Alyagon was back in the media spotlight with another metaphor that also aroused passionate reactions: "In recent years we have become familiar with a new and entirely different type of lice," he said. "These are lice that have undergone mutation, and are entirely different in form from the familiar creatures that nest in our hair. The mutated lice are huge human-size lice. Their greed knows no bounds, and rather than being reminiscent of a cute and tiny louse; they look like a hybrid between a venomous snake and a tiger with long claws and sharp teeth." "The mutated louse," added Alyagon during what was, of course, dubbed "the lice speech," "tries to take over large organizations, and occasionally even governments. These dangerous parasites come mainly from three sources: from the classical criminal community, from the large organizations of those who are in frequent need of the services of the courts and have a clear interest in influencing the system from which they make a living, and from other circles for whom the court constitutes an obstacle, preventing a despotic takeover of the entire government apparatus and of the entire public." The punishment was not long in coming. After Alyagon had served two terms as the president of the Magistrate's Court, the Judicial Appointments Committee, headed at the time by justice minister Yossi Beilin, decided not to appoint him as a judge in the Tel Aviv District Court. He was not rejected on the basis of his professional abilities, which were not in question; the three justices on the committee - Aharon Barak, Tova Strasberg-Cohen and Yitzhak Zamir - all supported his appointment. It was actually three politicians - Beilin, Yuli Tamir and Amnon Rubinstein - who were opposed, and in effect forced Alyagon, who was expecting the promotion, to return to serving as Magistrate's Court judge in Tel Aviv. "The harsh consequences of the 'lice speech' were not related to me," he says today. "The bombardment was aimed at Aharon Barak, who was at the heart of the attack of the ultra-Orthodox, but they fired at him through me. Shas and United Torah Judaism [UTJ] have always had complaints against the court, which prevented them from receiving everything they wanted from the state." Today Livni is adopting an uncompromising policy toward the ultra-Orthodox parties. It began with the coalition negotiations, and continued with the decision not to remove her picture from election posters in Bnei Brak. What is your opinion of that? "In ethical terms she did exactly what should be done. There's a certain limit which, if you cross it in order to become prime minister, then the whole business is not worth it." Even today he feels that he had no other choice. "I delivered the lice speech two weeks before the Judicial Appointments Committee convened to discuss my appointment to the District Court, which would have passed automatically, but I couldn't remain silent. Beilin apparently had a great interest at the time in receiving ultra-Orthodox support for the Oslo Accords. He rejected that idea out of hand, in spite of the fact that MK Moshe Gafni of UTJ said at the time that Beilin had promised him that my term as Magistrate's Court judge in Be'er Sheva would not be extended. It turned out that I was the 'fee' paid to the ultra-Orthodox. It wasn't such a big tragedy. I always say in that connection that if my great-grandfather, who was murdered in a pogrom in Russia, had known that his great-grandson was appointed a judge in Israel, he wouldn't have asked 'in a district or magistrate's court?'" Bitter aftertaste Now, while Alyagon is still experiencing the bitter aftertaste of these incidents, he plans to enter the political fray to fight against the forces that condemned him. "Now, as before, special-interest groups of all kinds are interested in seizing power and influencing the courts," he warns. "The dangers of which I spoke then are even more in evidence today. They come from political groups such as the ultra-Orthodox community, the Israel Bar Association, the government, crime organizations, banks and financial bodies. We have 600 judges in the system who must be protected." Israel is not England, he reminds his interlocutor: "The British have what is called self-restraint; they know exactly what is permitted and what is forbidden, whether it is written in the law or not. Here there is no such thing. Here, if there is some ruling that a political figure doesn't like, there immediately is a law to bypass or restrain the High Court of Justice, or proposals about changing the method of electing the judges. Every day we see such attempts on the part of the ultra-Orthodox parties - the various right-wing parties such as that of Avigdor Lieberman [Yisrael Beitenu]. Each one from his own perspective wants an obedient judicial system." The demonstrations held in the past against the judicial system under Aharon Barak were not a significant threat, in his opinion. "Demonstrations are all right. I am afraid of legislation aimed at reducing the power of the court," says Alyagon. "The blatant attempt of the political establishment to take control of the judicial system is a very serious thing. As a judge I encountered that every once in a while, but there was relatively minor damage. Today there are political forces that are undermining the judicial system, who are trying to impose terror." More than in the past? "Today there are laws, and there are people who do whatever they please. I think that this is an extreme situation that we didn't experience in the past. The deterioration began immediately after the Six-Day War. The person who understood the picture at the time was Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who anticipated exactly what is happening now. I really hate his opinions, [but he was] right all the time. What he said about the settlers was correct." How do you explain the affair of the so-called "House of Contention" in Hebron? "It definitely may be the beginning of the end of the State of Israel. There is anarchy here, there is no rule of law. There are powerful groups here, over which the government does not have the power to impose its authority. These are groups like the Phalanges in Lebanon, each of which is a government in itself. I think that a High Court decision must be obeyed; if the court orders me to evacuate my house, I'll evacuate. Even if I think that a terrible injustice has been done to me." The need to fight A father of five and grandfather of five, Oded Alyagon was born in Kfar Azar, in the house where he still lives today. His parents, Emanuel and Aliza, came to Palestine from Russia as children, during the period of the Second Aliyah (wave of immigration). They were suffused with Zionist ideals that were passed on to their son as well. "At home we had cows and chickens," he recalls with pleasure. "It was the 1950s, an entirely different life. The house was small, and with every child another room was added. It was wonderful. The entire village, all the way to Tel Aviv, was surrounded with orchards. When our cow was sick, Uncle Eliyahu, a veterinarian, came to us: He came on foot from Petah Tikva, because he had to save his sister's cow. At night the jackals would howl under my window and I would be scared to death." His experiences during the War of Independence were formative for him as a child. "Next to us was Kibbutz Efal; the Arabs lived right next to it. The children of Efal attended school in our village, because we had a school, and during the war we were cut off from them. The war took place right here. I remember that we missed them terribly. One day we decided to go and visit them. We were 7 or 8 years old. We went without our parents' permission, on the way we came under fire ... We began to lie down and stand up. It was like a game for us." After the war his father studied law and eventually opened an office in Tel Aviv. "His law certificate is hanging in my bedroom to this day," Alyagon notes. "I really imbibed the great respect that I have for the legal system from him. As a boy I was very involved in his work; during school vacations I helped him to copy minutes from the court. And the farm? You could say that Mom kept up the farm while Dad worked in Tel Aviv. Mom milked the cows, tended the vineyard and raised the chickens." After finishing high school in Givatayim, Alyagon volunteered to serve in the Paratroops; in the Six-Day War he fought in the Golan Heights. "When the Yom Kippur War broke out, my mother blessed my brother and said to him: 'Take care of the country and take care of yourself.' That was her attitude, that was the order. In that war I also fought on the Syrian front. When I returned home to my wife and children during one of the cease-fires, my wife said to my mother: 'I wish he would be wounded, so that he will come back.' Then my mother replied: 'What do you mean, you wish he will be wounded? He has to fight.' That's the education, that's the source of my values, and that will teach you what motivates me," he says in a wavering voice, wiping away a tear. In 1968 Alyagon finished his law studies at what was then the Tel Aviv branch of the Hebrew University, and joined his father's law firm in Tel Aviv. In December 1986 he was elected to serve as a judge in the Magistrate's Court. "Those were moments of tremendous excitement," he recalls. "I started working as a judge with a sense of awe. Until the day I retired, I entered the courthouse with a sense of awe. Every day I knew that I was invading people's souls. In my opinion to be a judge was the most respected thing to be in the State of Israel. You are given so much power and faith, to do good things. Even today, when I'm turning to a political path, I believe in that." You are carrying the flag of the legal system into a party with a heavy cloud hovering over it. Olmert, the man who appointed Daniel Friedmann as justice minister, is up to his neck in investigations, Haim Ramon was convicted of a sexual offense, Abraham Hirchson is suspected of serious crimes of corruption. How does that work? "It's hard for me to say that it's comfortable. I think that the situation of Kadima does not detract from the ideas it is promoting. The flaws must be repaired, the offending people must be put in their place, so that they won't harm the party and the country. I'm very disturbed by the fact that Olmert is not declaring incapacity. In his day attorney Yaakov Neeman, who was then justice minister, resigned the moment a police investigation began against him for a crime far less severe than those attributed to Olmert. There are months of investigations behind him, and he still doesn't feel any need to leave. In my opinion that's not proper, it's not the norm. "I don't understand what's causing them to stay. Ramon, who was convicted by law, why is he coming back? Ben-Gurion left, Menahem Begin left, but what is there about Ramon that the country can't manage without him? Why return by force? I don't understand it. Actually, maybe I do understand, and it makes me ill. In his place I would consider my steps more carefully. He didn't commit this crime as a soldier in compulsory service, but as a mature man; it's still fresh. In my opinion it's not even important whether a judge ruled that the offense is defined as a disgrace; the disgrace is not determined by the judge. The disgrace exists." 'Maybe I'm not worthy' Meanwhile, the unusual candidacy of a former judge is not arousing excitement in Kadima. "They didn't throw me a party, maybe I'm not worthy," hisses Alyagon cynically. "Maybe they know why. After all, I'm not a general in the Israel Defense Forces, I wasn't even the deputy head of the Shin Bet security services or a basketball player. But to tell the truth, even my wife didn't make a party for me; on the contrary, she was really upset with me because of this." Sometimes he says he even understands her. "We used to consider politics something that, even if it couldn't be called an indecent profession, was definitely one that does not bring honor. I think that that can be changed, that we can create a different kind of politics. They ask me, 'Why put yourself into a bad situation?' It's true that I'm now enjoying life in a way that's impossible to describe, everything is really fine, but I care about the country. My mother, may she rest in peace, used to say that the only way to repair the situation here is to take a hoe and dig Ben-Gurion up from his grave. I'm not the replacement for David Ben-Gurion, but if I can contribute a little to improving the status of the legal system, I'll be happy. I have no illusions that everything will be different because Oded is here. I have no pretensions of taking over leadership of the nation, of leading it in the wilderness until we reach the Promised Land." Where do you get funding for the election campaign? "I don't intend to take donations; I was offered some, but I refused. With the means at my disposal, I'll do what's possible. I don't want any obligations to donors. Nor have I hired advisers, spokespersons or strategists." And what if you don't make it to a realistic slot on the slate? "I know that in these elections I can only come out ahead. If I succeed, that will be good; if not, I'll make my wife and children happy. They're not enthusiastic about the idea. But I think that I have an obligation. It doesn't excite me, the trips to Jerusalem day and night, but I can't stay on the sidelines. It's stronger than I am. If they don't want me I won't bear any grudge. I'll leave quietly and modestly. I'll stay at home, I'll continue to sculpt and I'll be happy with my lot. My conscience will be clear, because I tried." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Picking up the pieces U.S. Jews ponder 'catastrophic' effects of Bernard Madoff affair. Little Adolf Three-year-old Adolf Hitler finally gets his name on his birthday cake.

Read & React 3-year-old Adolf Hitler finally gets his name on his birthday cake Responses: 120 Barak: Iran could attack the U.S. with a nuclear bomb Responses: 96 Britain steps up fight against West Bank settlements Responses: 32 Leftist U.S. Jewish group backs Israelis who shun IDF draft Responses: 17 Jews of Yemen reportedly to be relocated in wake of deadly attack Responses: 13 More Headlines 09:33 Barak to Haaretz: Gaza truce was not a mistake 13:12 7 more rockets strike Negev, as IAF renews attacks on Gaza 10:53 ANALYSIS / Hamas seems to want a cease-fire - but with Qassams 11:57 Hadassah Women: We lost $90 million in Madoff's Wall Street scam 12:18 Poll: Kadima narrows gap with Likud as party picks potential lawmakers 13:39 Police arrest driver of fatal bus crash upon his release from hospital 12:11 Israel bites back at UN watchdog over alleged strike on Syria reactor 12:36 Jews of Yemen reportedly to be relocated in wake of deadly attack 10:59 Leftist U.S. Jewish group backs Israelis who shun IDF enlistment 10:17 Exclusive Jewish country club feels the sting of Madoff fraud 11:27 Britain steps up fight against West Bank settlements 05:29 Circumcision more bitter than sweet for motherless twins 06:28 Government mulling proposal to repair Muslim holy sites 08:01 Chabad's straight approach to Hanukkiah faces rounded objection Previous Editions Select Day 17 dec 16 dec 15 dec 14 dec 12 dec 11 dec 10 dec 09 dec 08 dec 07 dec 05 dec 04 dec

Special Offers Advertisement Summer in Israel Israeli style - Tzofim Chetz V'Keshet 2009 Summer Camp in Israel The best place for your children this summer Living in Israel Studying in English Click & Meet our students from all around the world Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Car rental in Israel Shlomo Sixt Receive $15.00 from our low rates. Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Jewish Singles Personal Ads Find the love of your life on JDate.com Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved