Judge Yechiel Kasher:
- I agree with my colleagues that the appeal should be dismissed. I would like to add two short comments of my own.
- First, I would like to address the comment of my colleague, Vice-President Sohlberg, according to which he is of the opinion that non-renewal of a license in the circumstances of the case at hand constitutes "a limited infringement, which is not on the serious side of the violation of the right to freedom of occupation" (paragraph 15 of his opinion), and that: "this is not an infringement of the right to property" (paragraph 18 of his opinion).
The question of whether, and in what cases, a decision not to renew a license constitutes an infringement of a constitutional right, and in particular the right to property, is a complex question that I would prefer to leave the decision to the time being (for a comprehensive discussion of the recognition of "new property" as an object of constitutional protection, see: Aharon Barak Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and the law-Foundation: Freedom of Occupation Volume 3 - Constitutional Rights 1292-1297 (Yitzhak Zamir ed., 2023); and with regard to the recognition of a license as property in its constitutional sense, see ibid., at pp. 1297-1306). However, even if I assume, as my colleague, that the non-renewal of a license does not constitute an infringement of the right to property in the constitutional sense (and as stated, I do not express an opinion on this matter one way or the other), I am of the opinion that in cases where we are dealing with non-renewal of a license for business activity of considerable value (whether objectively or taking into account the circumstances of the business owner), it is not possible to ignore the severe harm that will be caused to the business activity by the non-renewal of the license. This violation must be given real weight in the examination of the decision whether to renew the license or not. It seems that these words are also accepted by my colleague (see paragraphs 19 and 20 of his opinion), and I see fit to emphasize them.