As expected, the Judicial Selection Committee on Sunday evening elected Justice Yitzchak Amit to serve as President of the Supreme Court

The election came after Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara bullied the judicial system into electing him by prohibiting the Judicial Selection Committee from investigating multiple serious allegations against him.

The vote was boycotted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the coalition’s representatives on the committee – Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionist party) and Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzchak Kroizer.

Minister Yariv Levin informed the court administration that he does not recognize the appointment. “As long as the president of the Supreme Court was not elected through a proper procedure according to law and in accordance with the powers granted to the Judicial Selection Committee and its chair, it will not be possible to carry out actions that require cooperation between the president of the Supreme Court and the Minister of Justice.”

“Therefore, I hereby announce unequivocally that I do not recognize Honorable Judge Yitzhak Amit as President of the Supreme Court, and the proceedings in which he was ‘elected’ are fundamentally flawed and illegal,” Levin wrote.

Levin also issued a statement together with Minister Ofir Sofer and MK Yitzchak Kroizer, saying: “Today, the Judicial Selection Committee convened and ‘elected’ a president for the Supreme Court, so to speak.”

“We did not participate in the discussion. The election of a president for the Supreme Court at a time when a serious cloud hovers over the conduct of the candidate regarding several different cases, including allegations about his purported actions in conflicts of interest and regarding building violations at his residence, while providing contradictory answers to the raised claims, and without the basic obligation to conduct a professional and objective investigation into those allegations, is a moral disgrace, contradicting all rules of proper administration and reeking of selective enforcement.”

“The public in Israel knows what has happened in the past, and even very recently, to the fate of leading candidates for other senior positions whose appointments have been rejected and disqualified due to similar claims.”

“No less serious is the fact that the ‘election’ was carried out via an illegal order from the Supreme Court, at the height of an inherently illegal process, which stripped the Minister of Justice of his powers as defined by law, turning the Judicial Selection Committee into a rubber stamp for the Supreme Court.”

“The Supreme Court’s order was issued despite the fact that there is no genuine urgency in appointing a president for the Supreme Court, as the acting president holds all the powers of the president, yet the Supreme Court judges were eager to impose this appointment in a forceful and illegal manner.”

“This is a sad day for democracy and a sad day for our judicial system. A president ‘elected’ in such a manner will not be able to gain the public’s trust, which is necessary for the judicial system as a fundamental condition for its existence.”

“In the name of a vast public whose democratic rights were trampled in this illegal process, and whose expectation for a fair and ethical judicial system was also trampled, we will not cease to act until we bring about a fundamental correction of this shameful situation.”

Minister Nir Barkat responded: “What a bushah. This is what a full judicial coup looks like. The Supreme Court justices appointed a president for themselves this evening by trampling on elected officials. A dark day for Israeli democracy.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)