High Court overturns communications minister’s firing of post office chief
Justices find that legal procedures for removing the head of a government company were not followed; Minister Karhi pans ruling as violation of democratic rule
The High Court of Justice on Thursday nullified a decision by two government ministers to fire Israel Postal Company chairman Mishael Vaknin, ruling that the pair had not followed the procedures laid down by law for such a move and had not provided sufficient reason for dismissing him.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who together with fellow cabinet minister David Amsalem had fired the post office chief last July, denounced the court’s ruling as undermining the authority of elected officials.
The panel of justices Isaac Amit, Khaled Kabub, and David Mintz unanimously accepted a petition against the firing and instructed “that the decision of the ministers is null and void,” according to a summary of their ruling from the court.
The court stressed that the ministers were not authorized to fire the appointed director of a government company at their discretion, but only in the presence of one of the established circumstances laid down by law. It noted that the reason given by the ministers — that the director was not properly fulfilling his role — requires “the laying of a solid foundation, established and clear, regarding deviation from the expected conduct of a director.”
It said that an “unambiguous” picture emerged of “significant defects” in the process of removing Vaknin from his position, and it was determined that “it was not possible to see it” as having met the requirements of the law.
Among the issues raised by the court were that Karhi had already made the decision and told Vaknin he intended to remove him from his position as early as March 2023; that the reasons presented as justifying the move were “extremely weak”; and that a required hearing on the dismissal was only conducted after the fact.
The accumulation of issues led to nullifying what Amit called the “extremely unusual and extremely unreasonable” decision to fire Vaknin, the court said.
Kabub agreed with the other two justices that the decision to remove the chairman was “not consistent with the applicable principles.”
Responding to the development, Karhi said in a statement that the court’s intervention “is a fundamental violation that goes down to the root of the democratic regime in the State of Israel,” and accused the court of bringing “lawlessness” upon the country.
Karhi also scorned the court for meddling with administrative matters.
“Later, when there is a catastrophe in the postal services, when heads of authorities petition the High Court against the disgraceful mail service, the High Court will request the response of the communications minister and blame [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” he said, apparently referring obliquely to the results of a state commission of inquiry that a day earlier found Netanyahu was one of those responsible for failures that led to a crush at a religious festival in 2021 that killed 45 people.
In September, the High Court froze the decision to fire Vaknin, with the court calling into question the postal chief’s rapid dismissal soon after the ministers entered office.
Then in January, the three judges hearing the case recommended that Karhi and Amsalem reverse their decision, warning that if they did not the judges would likely instruct them to do so. Karhi refused, writing in response that for the court to do so would be illegitimately interfering with his authority as communications minister.
During a previous hearing in January, the justices pointed out that a director of a government company had never before been fired by a government minister, and expressed significant concern that Vaknin’s dismissal was not based on professional considerations.
Vaknin’s removal last July as chair of the Israel Postal Company drew intense criticism from then-Government Companies Authority director Michal Rosenbaum, and was also opposed by some in the Justice Ministry.
Rosenbaum and the Postal Company — which is in the process of a privatization effort — have contended that Vaknin’s dismissal was politically motivated, to allow Karhi and Amsalem to appoint loyalists to the service’s board of directors.
Rosenbaum herself resigned in January, accusing Amsalem of using his authority to appoint cronies to senior positions in government companies.
