After 18-month hiatus, Judicial Selection Committee finally appoints new judges

The Judicial Selection Committee appointed judges for the first time in a year and a half on Sunday, filling dozens of vacancies on magistrate courts as well as on traffic, youth, and family courts.

The appointments come following legal pressure exerted through petitions to the High Court of Justice asking that it order Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the committee and fill some of the 51 vacancies on numerous magistrate and district courts around the country.

Seventeen judges were appointed to magistrate courts in the northern and Haifa districts; 12 judges were appointed to traffic courts; six to youth courts; and 12 to the family courts.

In addition, six magistrate court presidents were promoted to serve as district court judges, while 15 temporary judges were appointed to district courts to help ease the heavy case burden they are facing after 18 months, in which numerous vacancies have opened without new judges being appointed.

MK Karine Elharrar of the Yesh Atid party, representing the opposition in the Judicial Selection Committee, abstained from the promotion of the magistrate court presidents together with the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, in protest of Levin’s refusal to make appointments to magistrate courts in the Central, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem districts, where there are acute shortages of judges.

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The three Supreme Court justices on the committee voted with the three coalition representatives on the appointments, ensuring that they would pass.

Among the magistrate court presidents promoted was Judge Menahem Mizrahi, who has overseen numerous requests by police for restrictive conditions for the suspects in the Qatargate affair in his Rishon Lezion magistrate’s court. The suspects, close aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are alleged to have conducted a public relations campaign for Qatar, which has funded and supported Hamas, while working for Netanyahu.

Mizrahi has frequently criticized the actions of the police and prosecutors in the Qatargate affair, but the Central District Court, where Mizrahi’s decisions have been appealed, has repeatedly overturned them, sometimes sharply criticizing his rulings and other aspects of his professional behavior.

The 18-month failure to make appointments came about due to Levin’s refusal to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, and his demand that all appointments be made with “broad consensus,” meaning unanimity, on the committee, even though lower court appointments require only five votes out of nine.

Levin’s tactic was seemingly designed to exert greater influence over the committee, since the coalition lacks a majority on the panel. The coalition, meanwhile, has sought to remake the committee through legislation that would grant politicians veto power over all judicial appointments, including to the High Court itself. The High Court is also reviewing that legislation, and appears poised to strike it down.

Petitions to the court against Levin’s position generated pressure on the minister, however, so that published the names of judicial candidates for magistrate and other courts in early May, leading to Sunday’s appointments.

The committee can only hold hearings on judicial nominees 45 days after their candidacies are published in the state gazette.

Despite these steps, in May the High Court ordered Levin specifically to appoint district judges to the Haifa and Beersheba district courts in particular, because there is an acute lack of judges on those benches, and ordered him to publish candidates’ names by June 8.

Israel Courts Administration Director Judge Tzachi Ouziel, not Levin, then published a list of candidates for the Haifa and Beersheba district courts in the state gazette on June 5.

The end of the 45-day period for the district court judges is July 20, extremely close to the likely final date for the dissolution of the Knesset, after which judicial appointments are very difficult, so it remains to be seen if that aspect of the ruling will be implemented.

Levin has yet to set a new date to convene the committee for those appointments.

“After the High Court of Justice obligated the justice minister to perform his duty under the law and appoint judges, and after a year and a half since its last meeting, the committee convened today and elected over 60 judges for the magistrate, youth, family, and traffic courts,” Elharrar said.

“The new judges are professional, and were elected by the majority of committee members as stipulated by law. It’s a shame it took so long, but it’s good that it happened.”

Settlements Minister Orit Strock of the Religious Zionism party praised all members of the committee for “returning to the straight path,” and “showing restraint and compromise,” after earlier criticizing the High Court for its May ruling.