2025-08-29
Technion's Legal Counsel Rachel Ben-Ari -- updating Technion's friends
To the Honorable
Mr Scott Leemaster of Fraser, Michigan
Chairman of the Technion Board of Governors
and
Technion Societies and Technion's Friends worldwide
Dear Friends,
I am writing to update you on the latest developments in the matter involving Attorney Rachel Ben-Ari, who appears to serve as the Technion's Legal Counsel.
The core of the affair is allegations of serious corruption in the Haifa Family Courts. There is no denying this. At a meeting on July 16, 2025, the Chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK, Attorney Simcha Rothman, referred to the Family Courts as "the black hole of the court system."[1] And already in 2016, an article was published titled, "The Family Courts: There is a total jungle in the courts. Do everything to avoid them,"[2] in which "senior legal scholars," including Prof. Dafna Hecker of Tel Aviv University, one of Israel's best known scholars of Family Law, were quoted in a scathing criticism of the Family Courts, including statements opining that they were no courts at all.
The uniqueness of the Haifa affair lies in the meticulous and long-term documentation (since 2013) of the case, which is the result of a coincidence: I have been involved in the field of human rights for many years, and, at an advanced age, I found myself in the Haifa Family Court. In my opinion, the unusual events taking place there today are being instigated by judges as retaliation for my past reports regarding the Court. The acts at the center of the alleged corruption affair are "fabrications" in the courts' case management system - Net-HaMishpat. For years, I have been calling on computer scientists to voluntarily assume responsibility for monitoring e-government, which has become a central instrument of governance. Around 2000, Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig published the seminal "Code is Law", where he argued online corporate platforms create a law that is unchecked and runs contrary to the law enacted by the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Constitution. Here, we are referring to a court case management system - defining the law of the land. The late Technion Prof. Uzzi Ornan, who praised my work, proposed years ago that we hold a public debate on the subject at the Technion, under the auspices of the Student Union.
I did not study as a full-time student at the Technion, but as a child, I was privileged to take two computer science courses at the Technion (around 1967-68). It was a different world, of course, but the foundation remained the same. Indeed, my original contribution to the field of human rights is in reports based on the analysis of information systems in courts, prisons, and other relevant institutions. As part of a small NGO and with a minimal budget, I was the lead author on four reports submitted to the UN Human Rights Council: two on the US (2010 and 2015) and two on Israel (2013 and 2018). The submissions passed the review of the professional staff (when I last checked, only about 50% of the submissions from "stakeholders" passed the review) and were incorporated in the final reports of the corresponding Universal Periodic Review process [UPR].
My expertise in this area has also been recognized in the European Union - in 2018 I was invited to give a 2.5-hour seminar at a colloquium of law professors from across Europe sponsored by the EU at the University of Göttingen Law School; in the US - in 2020 I was asked by the State Department to contribute a short periodic report on the Israeli judicial system; in the Supreme Court of Israel - in 2018 I wrote to Presiding Justice Esther Hayut and requested a correction to the Supreme Court's IT system that had compromised its integrity and credibility. She accepted my suggestion, and I received a thank-you note. In January 2019, I was also invited to a closed meeting with Deputy Presiding Justice Hanan Melcer, Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, to discuss threats to the integrity of elections in Israel.
Yours truly,
Joseph Zernik, PhD, LLB
[1] Editorial, "The Black Hole of the Judicial System: The Bill That Seeks to Expose Family Court Rulings," The Hottest Place in Hell (July 31, 2025).
[2] Chen Ma'anit, "The Family Court: There's a Total Jungle in the Courts. Do Everything to Avoid Them," Globes (September 21, 2016).
Former State Attorney Shai Nitzan apparently concealed a criminal complaint filed with the police against Judge Esperanza Alon; the Justice Minister and Attorney General are collaborating in covering up the affair...
A Freedom of Information petition being heard by Judge Dana Cohen-Lekach at the Jerusalem District Court provides unprecedented insights into the legal and judicial system in Israel. The petition reveals that Shai Nitzan apparently concealed a criminal complaint that was duly filed with the Israel Police against Judge Esperanza Alon. The Freedom of Information request, from which the petition arose, requested "a document signed by the appropriate authority, containing a decision regarding my request to the Attorney General to order the opening of a criminal investigation against Judge Esperanza Alon in Case No. 223561-2016 and the reasoning for the decision." The complaint was based on original and sophisticated fabrications by Judge Esperanza Alon in Net-HaMishpat case management system. The State Attorney's Office represents the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General in the petition and is doing its best to whitewash, which is precisely where the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General, known as bitter enemies, are cooperating with each other.
In browser: https://inproperinla.blogspot.com/2025/08/2025-08-20.html
Photos | From left: Judge Esperanza Alon, Attorney Amos Sadika, Judge Hila Gurevitz, Attorney Rachel Ben-Ari - the case in the Haifa Family Court began in 2013 with Judge Esperanza Alon and Attorney Amos Sadika. Until 2023, eight years after she moved to the District Court, the main file in the case remained registered in the name of Judge Esperanza Alon. Even then, the case was transferred to her good friend, Judge Hila Gurevitz, outside of the regular legal routing system of the Haifa Family Court. The alleged corruption continues to this day, with Judge Hila Gurevitz and Attorney Rachel Ben-Ari. A separate, supplementary criminal complaint was filed against Judge Hila Gurevitz and Attorney Rachel Ben-Ari.
In a Freedom of Information petition in the Jerusalem District Court (Case No. 37010-06-25 Joseph Zernik v. Justice Minister Yariv Levin), Petitioner Joseph Zernik, PhD, LLB, is attempting to discover the fate of the criminal complaint against Judge Esperanza Alon. The complaint was reviewed by police fraud investigators and entered on the record. Immediately thereafter, the Petitioner filed it with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit with a request to order the police to open an investigation. According to the law, only the Attorney General is authorized to order the opening of a criminal investigation against a judge, and only the Attorney General is authorized to decide whether to file an indictment against a judge.
No comments:
Post a Comment