A week after the publication of a report on the Second Lebanon War by the Winograd Committee, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch on Sunday said Israel is in the grips of a "political and social tumult."

In a speech delivered at Tel Aviv's Kibbutzim College of Education, Beinisch commented on the call to oust Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from office in light of his handling of the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon last summer.

"We have experienced failure, social inequality, growing poverty in wide class circles, and lack of faith in all institutions the public is in need of," she said.

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"Today one needs to be optimistic in order to believe that we can strengthen and improve Israeli society, but one cannot get caught in a state of ennui," she added.

In her speech Beinisch also responded to calls made by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann calling for reforms in the Supreme Court.

"The institution is a mirror image of the problems which we have to deal with at the heart of Israeli society," she said.

Friedmann supports restricting the Supreme Court's ability to overturn laws passed by the Knesset.