By Paul Greenberg
SAN DIEGO — The documentary film, The Judge, is primarily about Aharon Barak’s (real name: Erik Brick) tenure as Justice on the Israeli Supreme Court (1978-2006), where he served as its President for 11 years (1995-2006), although it understandably devotes less time to his prior stint as Israel’s Attorney General (1975-1978). The film explores some of his most important, groundbreaking, and controversial cases to illustrate a world view and legal philosophy which were rooted in and greatly shaped by his experience as a Lithuanian Holocaust survivor who was rescued by peasants.
The core of the film is a fairly recent on-camera interview with the retired activist jurist explaining some of his major decisions dealing with human rights, human dignity, and good governance. His comments are periodically peppered with comments from Israeli ministers, legislators, activists, and journalists, many of whom characterize him as a meddler in Israel’s internal affairs.
Some of his most highly criticized decisions that are covered in the film include allowing Rabbi Kahane’s racist statements against Arabs on free speech grounds (“Freedom of expression includes the right to express infuriating and perverse opinions, regardless of whether they are racist or dangerous.”); overturning John Demajanjuk’s death sentence when new evidence emerged that, although a murderer of Jews, there was insufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he was “Ivan the Terrible” (Humanity and human dignity are values without which life has no meaning.”); not allowing the Neighbor Procedure, whereby the Israeli army used local residents to knock on buildings to alert its inhabitants to vacate before the Israeli army destroyed the buildings (“It is a violation of international law to use locals for the army’s own purposes.” ); ordering Israel to remove segments of the Separation Fence where it cut off the Palestinians from their livelihoods (“It is a question of proportionality.”); and allowing extrajudicial killings to target terrorists and injure civilians as long as it is proportional.
Three decisions that infuriated the religious in Israel were mentioned in passing : allowing same-sex couples to record as married in the population registry, allowing the sale of the pigs in communities with a religious minority, requiring roads to be open on the Sabbath except in times of prayer. (“If religious people don‘t want the state to meddle in their affairs, then don’t try to impose religious legislation on others.”)
The time spent focusing on Barak’s stint as attorney general mainly deals with his participation in the Camp David Accords, and his decision to prosecute Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during the Dollar Account affair of the 1970s, when the prime minister maintained a (joint) bank account in another country (the United States), contrary to Israeli law. Rabin effectively resigned to avoid prosecution, and years later rose once again to the top spot as prime minister.
The Judge is very informative and provides an enlightening window into Aharon Barak’s thought processes, although its over-reliance on negative comments made by others regarding his decisions became tiring and annoying. In a touching (but somewhat staged) moment, he is shown meeting with the Lithuanian peasants who rescued him 66 years earlier during the Holocaust.
The Judge (Israel/2009/53 minutes/Hebrew/ Ram Landes and Ami Teer) will be shown on Friday, February 10 at 10:30 AM at the JCC Garfield Theatre as part of the 22nd Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival. The post-discussion will be led by Jean Jacques Surbeck, President and Executive Director of T.E.A.M. (Training and Education about the Middle East).*
Greenberg is a freelance writer based in San Diego.
Greenberg is a freelance writer based in San Diego.