Court: Ramon may stay vice premier despite sex offense

Vice Premier Haim Ramon is allowed to remain at his post despite his conviction for sexual harassment, the High Court of Justice ruled yesterday. But Justice Edna Arbel warned that his appointment constituted an undesirable acceptance of "unworthy behavioral patterns."

The court rejected a petition filed against Ramon's appointment. The petitioners had argued that Ramon's conviction for harassment and indecent behavior should preclude his serving as a cabinet minister.

The petitions were filed by several women's rights groups and the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel.

"The court deems Ramon's offense as a one-time slip that does not attest to an innate moral defect that might constitute grounds to disqualify him from holding a public official," Justice Ayala Procaccia wrote in the ruling.

Procaccia added, however, that the prime minister must "take into consideration the ethical background of the ministerial candidate when deciding on the government's makeup." Procaccia also said that this duty applies "even when the applicant's candidacy is legally permissible."

According to Procaccia, "the fact that a candidate's actions do not constitute moral turpitude does not mean that he or she is necessarily a legitimate appointment to the post."

Justice Asher Grunis said the court was not authorized to intervene in the appointment as it had already been approved by the Knesset.

Justice Edna Arbel, who wrote the dissenting opinion, said that "the fact that someone is qualified to serve as a minister does not contradict the obligation to take into account his or her criminal past."

Ramon's appointment, under the given circumstances, "compromises the basic principles on which the rule of law is based, principles without which orderly society cannot exist," Arbel said.

According to Arbel, "the fact that Ramon's offenses are among the least severe sexual offense must not serve to obscure from sight the fact that Ramon was in fact convicted of criminal offenses."

She went on to say: "The relative lightness of the offense does not make the conviction go away. Ramon's appointment before the ink had set on his conviction reflects a sense of acceptance and reconciliation with behavioral norms that do not merit a forgiving attitude on the public's part."

Last January, Haim Ramon was convicted of indecent behavior by the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court for having kissed a young female soldier against her will while he was serving as justice minister.

Ramon kissed the soldier on the first day of the Second Lebanon War, just before a special cabinet meeting on the decision to go to war.

Throughout the trial, Ramon argued that he thought the kiss was consensual and claimed that the complainant H. had been flirting with him.

Ramon claimed that she also did not appear to be traumatized after the kiss, adding that she posed for a picture with him and gave him her telephone number at her own initiative.