After a five-and-a-half hour session, the Judicial Selection Committee chose Yitzhak Amit, who was acting president of the Supreme Court, as the court’s permanent president. Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, who chairs the committee, and committee members Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strook and MK Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit) boycotted the session because of their opposition to the appointment. Those who voted in favor of the appointment were Judge Noam Sohlberg and Judge Daphne Barak-Erez, the representatives of the Israel Bar Association Adv. Yonit Calmanovich and Adv. Muhamad Naamneh, and Opposition representative MK Karine Elharrar (Yesh Atid). Sohlberg was appointed vice president of the court.
In response to the vote, Levin stated, "I do not recognize his honor Judge Yitzhak Amit as president of the Supreme Court, and the procedures whereby he was ‘elected’ are fundamentally flawed and illegal." Levin said he would not cooperate with Amit, which will mean that senior appointments in the legal system, which require agreement between the two, will not be made. In fact, Levin has refused to cooperate with Amit since he became acting president of the Supreme Court on the basis of the seniority system after the previous president Esther Hayut retired. This has left many judicial vacancies unfilled.
Levin, Strook and Kroizer said in a statement: "The selection of a president of the Supreme Court while a heavy cloud hangs over the conduct of the candidate in several cases, among other things claims that he apparently acted while in a conflict of interests, and concerning building infringements at his home, amid conflicting responses that he has given to the claims raised, and without the basic obligation to conduct a professional and objective enquiry into these claims being met, is a moral outrage, contrary to all rules of proper administration, and smells strongly of selective enforcement."
President Herzog welcomed the appointment, saying, "I congratulate Judge Amit on his selection for the role of president of the Supreme Court. The legal system in general and the Supreme Court in particular are a critical element in our democratic fabric and in protecting human rights and the rights of the citizen. We must guard them on every side. I believe that we should now move on and put behind us the dispute that has arisen in the past few weeks over the process of selecting the president of the Supreme Court. We must look ahead, lower the flames of conflict, and aspire to reach understandings as far as possible."
In September 2024, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ordered Levin to hold a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee, after Levin had refrained from doing so for more than a year in order to prevent the appointment of Amit. The court held that Levin was acting unlawfully, while for his part Levin claimed that the ruling was illegal and represented "a belligerent takeover of the Judicial Selection Committee." Yesterday was the final deadline set by the court for holding a vote in the committee.
Last week Levin requested the High Court of Justice for a postponement of the vote, on the grounds that an enquiry should be held into newspaper and media reports that he said raised the suspicion that Amit had acted as a judge while in a conflict of interests. There were also reports of infringements against planning regulations at his home in Mevaseret Zion. Amit denied that he had ever knowingly acted while in a conflict of interests, and explained that the building infringements came to light only after he had bought the house, that they had been in place for forty years without any proceedings being instigated, and that he had taken steps to regularize the building permit. The Attorney General and the head of the Israel Police Investigations Division both stated that there was no suspicion of criminal behavior. The court dismissed Levin’s request.
Also yesterday, the Judicial Selection Committee appointed judges to the Magistrate and District Courts with the consent of all committee members - including Levin and coalition members MKs Orit Strook and Yitzhak Kreuzer. This was even though the three boycotted and did not participate in the meeting. The consent was agreed upon in advance.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 27, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.