From a Zionist Correspondent
Jerusalem, Sept. 15
Date of Publication: September 16, 1948
Four months after the declaration of the State of Israel and for the first time for nearly 2,000 years an all-Jewish Supreme Court of Justice was opened in Jerusalem yesterday in the main hall of the former mandatory Government’s Supreme Court. The president, Dr. Moshe Smoira, and four members were sworn in by the Minister of Justice, Dr. Felix Rosenblueth. Each placed his right hand on the Bible.
The oath of allegiance reads as follows: “I swear and solemnly declare loyalty to the State of Israel and its Constitution[1] and to administer justice to the people, without prejudice or favour.”
Representatives of the provisional Government of Israel, military commanders, members of the Jewish Bar Association, and judges from all parts of Israel were assembled in the crowded court room. The British royal coat-of-arms had been removed from the Bench and replaced by the Jewish national flag, with the star of David. The president of the Supreme Court declared that the laws of Palestine which have been in force since the termination of the British mandate will, with the exception of immigration, land transfer, and other regulations based on the policy embodied in the British White Paper of 1939, remain in force until a Constituent Assembly has established a new legislature.
[1] As of today, the Constitution has yet to materialize, and the oath is now to the “laws” instead of to the “Constitution” of the State of Israel.
