Agranat, Simon (1906–1992)

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AGRANAT, SIMON (1906–1992)

Chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court (1965–1976). Born in Louisville, Kentucky, into a Zionist family, Simon Agranat attended the University of Chicago and its law school. He emigrated to British Mandatory Palestine in 1930, settling in Haifa and entering a private law practice. In 1940 he became the second Jewish magistrate in Haifa, served briefly as chief judge on the Haifa District Court, and was appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court in 1949. He became chief justice in 1965, retiring in 1976 at the mandatory age of 70. By introducing a "rights discourse" into Israel's legal dialogue—attributed by many to his American background—Agranat is considered to have been instrumental in the development of a judicially protected rule of law and an independent judiciary, and to have thus enhanced the status of political and civil liberties in Israel. In the aftermath of the October 1973 ("Yom Kippur") War, he chaired the Agranat Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the failure of Israeli intelligence to anticipate the surprise combined attack by Syrian and Egyptian forces. Criticism of the commission's 1974 report, which fell short of the expectations of many Israelis and much of the press, shadowed Agranat's last two years as chief justice. He died in 1992.

SEE ALSO Agranat Commission, on Arab-Israel War (1973);Arab-Israel War (1973).