Summary
The Qardosh case (1960), in Lahav’s account (Chapter 11): Simon Agranat’s opinion invalidating the companies registrar’s refusal to let Al-Ard incorporate as a publishing company, holding that statutory “absolute discretion” is not standardless and that ideological censorship was not within the registrar’s powers (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2102-2271).
Details
- Al-Ard applied in April 1960 to incorporate for “printing, publishing, translation, journalism, book importation and other matters related to printing”; the registrar refused, relying on the attorney general’s finding that the group was subversive, and Haim Cohn (who as attorney general had defended the army in Al-Couri) argued the Court could not intervene however arbitrary the decision (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2102-2200).
- Agranat (Witkon concurring) held “every administrative agency should act within the four corners of the purpose for which it was vested with powers by the law”, characterised the ban as censorship purging a voice from public discourse, and closed: “is it conceivable that the wish to prevent “dangerous” opinions … is within [the Registrar’s] … jurisdiction …? … I wonder!” The opinion never mentioned the petitioners were Palestinian Arabs (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2146-2205).
- On the government’s further-hearing request a five-justice panel sustained the result 3–2; Olshan, dissenting, said he “could not disagree with Agranat’s progressive views” but thought the result smacked of too large a dose of judicial activism (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2146-2205).
- Lahav contrasts Qardosh with Agranat’s 1965 Yeredor opinion upholding Al-Ard’s electoral ban, and wonders whether Agranat’s exclusion from the successive Al-Ard panels of 1961–1965 reflected Olshan’s view that progressive views should stay clear of national-security policy (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2146-2271).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Al-Ard, Yeredor Case, Simon Agranat, Kol Ha’am Case