Epilogue

Abstract Since the inception of the state of Israel, the Supreme Court has served as the primary agent for the introduction of liberal values into Israels political culture. In the 1980s, the Court effected three far-reaching changes in its jurisprudence: the rise of sweeping judicial activism; the rise of a value-laden style of reasoning; the rise of a self-perception of the Court as a political institution. These changes need to be understood in the context of the three great historical processes that began to unfold in Israel since the 1970s. In the 1990s, the Court held that it is authorized to repeal Knesset legislation, and that in enacting the two Basic Laws of 1992 the Knesset had given the state a constitution. The new government sworn on December 29, 2022 includes three religious parties that aspire for the establishment of theocracy in Israel. On January 4, 2023, Israel’s Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, initiated his “legal revolution” plan. These two developments drove Israel to an unprecedented turmoil. The war that erupted in southern Israel and Gaza on October 7, 2023, froze both the government’s legal revolution plan and the widespread civil society protest against it. But following the termination of the war, Israel will face again the highly divisive Kulturkampf that splits its society, and the struggle over the role to be played by the Supreme Court and its liberal jurisprudence in the country’s public life will re-erupt.