AG tells High Court Levin’s refusal to appoint judges harming justice system, is ‘unlawful’

By Jeremy Sharon

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27 April 2026, 7:43 pm

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Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara at a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on September 30, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells the High Court of Justice that Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s ongoing refusal to make appointments to magistrate and district courts is causing ongoing harm to the justice system and is unlawful.

In response to petitions to the court asking it to order Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to make these appointments, the attorney general points out that there are currently 51 vacancies on courts around the country, and that this figure will rise to 66 by the end of the year.

Baharav-Miara says therefore that not only can she not support Levin’s recent request that the court reject the petitions, but that the justice minister’s “arbitrary” conduct on the issue requires intervention by the court.

“In practice, the harm to the judicial system and litigants continues [due to the situation in which] the minister acts to staff the courts arbitrarily and not in accordance with the needs of the judicial system,” writes the attorney general.

Earlier this month, Levin announced his intention to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, but only to make appointments to youth, family, and traffic courts, not the key positions in the magistrate and district courts, where the absences have caused delays in legal proceedings.

The three High Court justices on the committee subsequently wrote to Levin and accused him of abusing his power as chairman of the panel and ignoring the real needs of the courts.

“Convening the committee in this manner does not repair the harm to all the various courts that has resulted from the severe shortage of judges,” Baharav-Miara continues in her submission to the court.

“This course of conduct, which amounts to a violation of the minister’s duty to act to convene the Judicial Selection Committee with due speed for [appointments to] all courts given the objectively urgent need… which has only become more acute… harms the judiciary and litigants, and contravenes the provisions of the law.”