Rivlin: Israelis alienated from democracy, police, judiciary

As an Israeli think tank readies its publication of the "Democracy Index" in Israel, a growing number of Israelis feel alienated from the Israeli democracy, police and judiciary, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday.

High Court President Aharon Barak, on the other hand, maintained that the judiciary is apolitical and fair."

"There is today in Israel a large portion of the public that feels alienated from democracy according to how they understand it or according to how it's presented to them, and in the last year that portion has grown much larger," Rivlin said at a memorial for the assassinated former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"The Israeli public feels the Israeli democracy's police and legal mechanisms are designed to serve their own political goals," Rivlin continued.

"I don't know if the High Court will be able to win the confidence of those who don't have a stake in what the court has come to represent," Rivlin concluded.

High Court President Aharon Barak maintained at the gathering that "in the courthouses in Israel there are professional judges, who work without political influence, and before them everyone is equal."

"Israeli legal judgement is apolitical. This is how we have been since the first day of the state, this is how we are now, and this, I am sure, is how we will be in the future as well," Barak said.

"The struggle against terror has to be carried out within the boundaries of the law, not in violation of the law. Individual rights have to be guarded in times of fighting as in times of peace. This is a war carried out with human rights in mind."