Landau, Moshe

Born in 1912 in Danzig, Prussia, Moshe Landau received his legal education at the University of London, graduating in 1933. That year, he immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1937 he was admitted to the Bar of Palestine. In 1940 he was made judge in the Magistrate's Court of Haifa and was appointed to the District Court upon the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. Landau was temporarily appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court in 1953 and received a permanent appointment at the end of 1953. As Supreme Court Justice, in 1957 he sat on the court-martial – Criminal Court of Appeals, discussing the problem of "Lawful Orders" in the case of the killing of 30 Arabs in the village Kafr Qasim. Landau presided over Eichmann’s trial in 1961. In 1962, Landau set a precedent regarding the freedom of information by overruling a censor decision. In 1965, as Chairman of the Israeli Central Elections Committee, he was the first to disqualify a "subversive" list from running for the Knesset. Landau was appointed president of the Supreme Court in 1980, a position which he held until his retirement in 1982. In 1987, Landau headed the Landau Commission to investigate the Shin Bet's procedures. The commission found frequent cases of perjury in court and violations of the law. The commission acknowledged that "moderate physical pressure" might sometimes be necessary as an interrogation tool. Landau died in 2011 at the age of 99.