Yoel Zussman | |
|---|---|
יואל זוסמן | |
.png) Zussman in 1976 | |
| Supreme Court of Israel judge | |
| In office 1951–1980 | |
| President of the Supreme Court of Israel | |
| In office 1976–1980 | |
| Preceded by | Shimon Agranat |
| Succeeded by | Moshe Landau |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1910-10-24)24 October 1910 |
| Died | 2 March 1982(1982-03-02) (aged 71) |
Yoel Zussman also spelledYoel Sussman (Hebrew:יואל זוסמן; 24 October 1910 – 2 March 1982) was an Israeli jurist and the fourth President of theSupreme Court of Israel, from 1976 to 1980.
Sussman was born in 1910 inKraków,Austria-Hungary (now inPoland). He received hisLLB from theUniversity of London and his PhD fromHeidelberg University. Heimmigrated to theBritish Mandate of Palestine in 1934. He was certified as a lawyer and served as Chief Prosecutor of theIsrael Defense Forces. In 1951 he was appointed to the Supreme Court and served as its Deputy President for several periods of time until 1953.
In 1965 during the Supreme Court hearings on election appeal caseYa'akov Yardor vs Central Election Committee for the Sixth Knesset, popularly known asEl-Ard Petition, Sussman coined definition of Israel as a "self-defending democracy", which was adopted by the Court.[1]Supreme Court upheld ban onEl-Ard (English:The Land), a radical Arab electoral list, from participation in theSixth Knesset elections and Sussman, taking theSupreme Court of West Germany ruling as a precedent, stated that there are supraconstitutional considerations hailing fromnatural law, that may be superior to any legislation:[2]
Just as an Individual is not bound to agree to being killed, neither is a state is obliged to consent to being annihilated and erased from the map... The German Constitutional Court...spoke of a "fighting democracy", which does not open its doors to acts of sabotage in the guise of legitimate parliamentary activity. For myself, as far as Israel is concerned, I am prepared to confine myself to "self-defending democracy," and tools for defending the existence of the state are at hand, even if we have not found them set forth in detail in the Elections Law[1]
In 1976 he succeededShimon Agranat as President of the Supreme Court. He retired in 1980 and was succeeded byMoshe Landau. He was an author of several books on bill laws and arbitration laws.[3] He died in 1982.
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