Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, January 2006.
(Getty Images / Image Bank.)
His most important coalition partner was Barak, who became minister of defense. Remain-
ing in the coalition not only accorded with Barak's policy views generally and his powerful role
as defense minister but also ensured his continued leadership of Labor despite growing criti-
cism. In 2011, the majority of Labor MKs split with Barak, took the party out of the coalition,
and moved toward the left. Barak, with a minority of Labor MKs, stayed in the government
and formed his own party. It seemed as if the long role of Labor as a leading party was at an end.
An apparent theme of contemporary Israeli politics is a competition to be seen as centrist
enough to pull in a variety of voters. This means that parties with a stronger ideological bent, a
specifi c constituency, and more extreme stands may become middle-sized parties or coalition
partners but cannot hope to play the leading role.
The most likely possibility for the future is a Likud-Kadima competition for leadership,
with Labor sinking to the status of a permanent middle-sized party. Other middle-sized par-
ties include Shas, with its Sephardic-Mizrahi, religious-ethnic base, and Avigdor Lieberman's
Yisrael Beiteinu, with its base mainly of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The more
left-wing, right-wing, and religious parties generally remain quite fragmented.
JUDICIAL BRANCH
Israel's judicial system is independent from the other two branches of government by law,
although the Ministry of Justice manages the system. Prior to the establishment of the State of
Israel in 1948, the British Mandate established a judicial structure based entirely on the British
judicial system. It included peace courts, whose responsibilities coincided with those of jus-
tices of the peace in the United States, along with district courts and a high court.
Today the court system in the State of Israel contains elements of British, Ottoman, and
Jewish law. Since 1948, a body of Israeli case law has been built up, and this has become an
important component of the legal system. In 1948, after Israel declared its independence, the
British judicial system previously in effect was retained. But the British system had never com-
