Israel’s constitutional chaos is far from over

By 1989 the city of Jerusalem had been trying for nearly two decades to build a new football stadium. Powerful religious groups who saw matches on the Sabbath as a desecration of Jerusalem’s sanctity had blocked the project, but at last ground could be broken. One obstacle remained. The acting interior minister, Arye Deri, an up-and-coming ultra-Orthodox politician, blocked the land-use change. Teddy Kollek, the city’s mayor, took him to court. In January 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that Mr Deri had acted “in an unreasonable way”. Two and a half years later the first match was played at Teddy Stadium.