Justice Ministry holds legal assistance conference for weaker sectors
Israel's Justice Ministry works to find a solution to serve communities that don't receive enough legal assistance.
The Justice Ministry on Wednesday held a conference highlighting 50 years of work by its Legal Assistance Division for society’s weaker sectors.
Speaking at the conference, outgoing Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar quoted from the preamble to the law regarding providing legal assistance.
“The purpose of the law is to achieve justice,” he said. “It is incumbent on us to give equal opportunities and the appropriate tools to make sure that there is full access to justice, even for those to whom fate has not been kind.”
“The primary job of the legal system is to protect those whose voice goes unheard, and this was the reason for founding the Legal Assistance Division 50 years ago,” he added.
Practically speaking, Sa’ar said this meant giving free legal advice and support to those who cannot afford to pay for such services so that they will be able to enforce their rights in court.
AN AVIV lawyer meets a Holocaust survivor for a consultation session. (credit: BENNY LAPID)There cannot be a situation where economically weaker sectors are oppressed and then get “stepped on” a second time by being unable to access the very justice system that could help balance the scales, he said.
Expanding legal services
Next, Sa’ar said the Legal Assistance Division has expanded over the years from three small offices that served only economically disadvantaged sectors to having offices all over the country and expanding to also aiding individuals with special needs.
Some of these special categories include victims of the underground slave trade, family members of a person who was killed and victims who have been placed in mental or other institutions against their will, he said.
He pressed for future governments to pass his proposed bill which would grant legal assistance to victims of sex crimes as early as the opening of a police probe.
This would be different from the current situation in which such victims only get full legal assistance at a much later stage in the case, sometimes only once their testimony becomes relevant at trial, he said.
In addition, the Legal Assistance Division must continue to assist all ethnic sectors of Israeli society, whereas minorities sometimes feel their suffering is invisible to authorities, Sa’ar said.
Nohi Politis, head of the Legal Assistance Division, said his unit’s work was part of a broader struggle against discrimination, oppression and weaker groups being labeled with negative stereotypes.
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