Edna Arbel, former state attorney and Supreme Court justice, dies at 82

Obituary

Arbel took part in Justice Ministry probe into Bus 300 affair, was on staff of state inquiry into Sabra and Shatila massacre, before becoming Tel Aviv District Court judge in 1988

By Michael Horovitz

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Today, 6:23 pm

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Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel

Former Supreme Court justice and state attorney Edna Arbel died at the age of 82 on Wednesday.

Arbel served as state attorney from 1994 to 2004, after which she served on the Supreme Court until 2014.

She was born in Jerusalem in 1944 to a Czech-born father, Yitzhak, and a Hungarian-born mother, Tova.

Arbel was admitted to the bar in 1969 and worked for a few years at Tel Aviv’s Hayak law firm before joining the Central District Office of the State Attorney in 1972, and eventually became district attorney in 1984.

During her time at the office, Arbel was requested by the Justice Ministry to serve on several ad hoc committees, among them the committee that investigated the 1984 Bus 300 affair, involving the hijacking of a Tel Aviv to Ashkelon bus by Palestinian terrorists, and their subsequent execution by Shin Bet agents and the cover-up.

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Arbel was also on the staff of the Kahan Commission — the state commission of inquiry investigating the 1982 massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.

In 1988, she became a judge at the Tel Aviv District Court, overseeing a variety of civil and criminal cases, and then in 1996 was appointed as state attorney, a position she filled for eight years.

In 2004, she was appointed to the Supreme Court, where she served until stepping down in 2014 at age 70. Among her judgments was the striking down of a law to establish a private prison in 2009, and supporting the ousting of mayors convicted of crimes in 2013.

In her farewell speech, Arbel said that “corruption is a malignant scourge that seriously harms our society” and that it was an issue that was always on her mind.

She emphasized the importance of preserving the “democratic image of our country, the equal rights of the minorities living among us, human rights and work to instill a commitment to the rule of law — so that we can maintain a better and more just society here.”

In 2023, Arbel joined almost all past attorneys general and state attorneys since 1975 in signing a letter decrying the government’s planned judicial overhaul, saying it “threatens to destroy the justice system.”

President Isaac Herzog mourned the loss of the legal giant in a post on X, saying that Arbel fulfilled her roles “out of a deep sense of mission, responsibility and commitment to the State of Israel and the rule of law.”

Arbel leaves behind her three daughters, Sagit, Zohar and Keren, whom she had with her late husband, Ori.

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