It is an honor for the Knesset to take part in the presentation of the Democracy Award to President Emeritus of the Supreme Court Meir Shamgar.
It is a great privilege that is based on the enormous contribution of Meir Shamgar to Israeli democracy. This personage has left his mark on every organization in which he has served his people and his country: not only in his most important position as President of the Supreme Court, not only in his significant role as Attorney General to the government, and not only in his service as Chief Advocate General of the IDF.
Even when the nation was only a state-in-the-making, young Meir Sternberg (as he was then called), who fought fiercely for his people, paid for his struggle with his freedom and was exiled from his country. While in the detention camps, he decided that his entire life would be devoted to his country.
For years Meir Shamgar has succeeded in bringing together diverse ends of the spectrum, a fact which is not necessarily self-evident. He concerned himself with firmly establishing the rights of the individual while maintaining the national authority of the majority; he concerned himself with strengthening the stature of the Supreme Court without injuring the sovereignty of the people via its chosen representatives in the Knesset. He tightened the supervision of the court over the actions of the IDF in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, while preserving the army’s ability to guard the country’s security. Shamgar is like the waters which run slowly, but with assurance and determination. His strength is his eminence, his moral determination to put the good of the country and the supremacy of the law and justice before all.
He has done much to strengthen Israeli democracy as it confronts its enemies and as it constantly strives to advance and become like other normative countries, while at the same time not detracting from the values of Jewish heritage and the traditions of generations. Meir Shamgar’s name will be etched in gold letters in Israeli law books and in the history books of Israel.
It is my honor as Speaker of the Knesset to use the patronage of my office for the presentation of the Award of the Israel Democracy Institute to someone so deserving, to a person for whom law and justice go hand in hand.
With my blessings