National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has submitted a request to the Supreme Court to bar High Court Justice Khaled Kabub from sitting on the panel of judges who will hear petitions calling for the minister’s dismissal.
Kabub is the first and only Muslim justice to sit on Israel’s High Court.
In his request to the court, Ben Gvir says that in 2021 he filed a complaint with the Israel Bar Association over Kabub’s son, Waleed Kabub, accusing him of “supporting the enemy” over social media posts during that year’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Therefore, he does not believe the justice can be impartial in the case, and says he should recuse himself, the Ynet news site reports.
The High Court last week announced that it was expanding the panel set to hear the Ben Gvir petitions to nine justices due to “the nature and the gravity” of the case. While there are supposed to be 15 Supreme Court justices, there are currently only 11 since Justice Minister Yariv Levin has refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill the vacancies.
A hearing on the petitions demanding that Ben Gvir be fired over allegations that he abuses his powers is set for March 24.
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