Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee convened on Monday and appointed four new Supreme Court justices.
Two of the judges are liberal, Khaled Kabub and Ruth Ronen, and two are ostensibly conservative, Gila Kanfi-Steinitz and Yechiel Kasher, but right-wing politicians slammed Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar for caving in to the left and choosing more moderate judges over staunchly conservative judges.
Unlike Religious Zionist MK Simcha Rothman and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who were both on the selection committee and supported more conservative judges, Sa’ar said that his most important criteria for selecting judges were excellence, diversity, and balance, admitting that those characteristics are more important to him than conservatism.
Rothman voted against Sa’ar choices and slammed his selection, saying that the two right-wing judges are not conservative or at least not of equal weight compared to Kabub and Ronen, who are considered extremely liberal. Rothman is furious that Sa’ar gave up the opportunity to not only appoint two staunchly conservative judges but also failed to veto two extremist liberal judges, and accused him of submitting to the dictates of Chief Justice Esther Hayut, who supported Ronen’s appointment.
Sa’ar prioritized diversity by selecting Kanfi-Steinitz [the wife of Likud MK Yuval Steinitz], the Supreme Court’s first Sephardi woman, over a more conservative judge. One of the liberal judges – Khaled Kabub, is the first Arab Muslim to be appointed to the Supreme Court. His appointment was slammed by Religious Zionist chairman Betzalel Smotrich due to “his connections and meetings with pro-terrorist elements.”
Following the announcement of the appointments, Shaked wrote a post on social media, saying that she admits that “if I had served as chairman of the committee, the result would have been different. It is no secret that I wanted to appoint other judges at the meeting today. The chairman of the committee, Justice Minister [Gideon Sa’ar] took a different approach.”
The Religious Zionist party responded by issuing a statement: “Ayelet, you can deceive all people some of the time and some of the people all the time. But you can no longer deceive all of the people all of the time. “The ‘deal’ you were a partner to today is a disgraceful failure for the one who promised to win over the Supreme Court.”
“The damage to Israeli democracy from the appointment of the four judges today who will perpetuate the ruling legal junta will be felt for many years. In order not to anger your partner Abbas, you didn’t even have the strength to oppose his selection of Kabub who met with terror supporters and harmed bereaved families.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
They won’t appoint a chareidi judge but they will an Arab. They won’t draft the Arabs but they will draft chareidim. They claim they can’t trust Arabs in the army but they can trust them as judges,doctors,restaurant help and everything else. It was an Arab judge that sent former prime minister Olmert to jail as well as deported an American yeshiva boy from crown heights after he tried to stop some black punks from attacking jewish kids. This government must be overthrown. In next election every frum israeli must vote for change. In the meantime everyone should try marrying a bit younger and have more kids.Once chareidim are a majority we will control the government and Supreme Court. It’s not that far off as the latest poll shows most young secular Israelis in college want to leave Israel. We must create more Shadchonim.
“The Religious Zionist party responded by issuing a statement: “Ayelet, you can deceive all people some of the time and some of the people all the time. But you can no longer deceive all of the people all of the time. “
Aside from their political ineptness, the religious “opposition” can’t even come up with some original hyperbole and instead invoke a fractured quote from R’ Avraham Lincoln.
As the Dems learned here in the U.S. from the 2016 outcomes, elections have consequences which are even further leveraged when the ruling party is smart enough to flex its power (and get 3 SCOTUS justices confirmed).