Communications minister Karhi tells High Court he won’t undo dismissal of post office chief

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has told the High Court of Justice that he was sticking to his decision to fire Israel Postal Company chairman Mishael Vaknin, insisting that the court had no authority to tell him to reverse it.

In September, the High Court froze a July decision made by Karhi and fellow cabinet minister Dudi Amsalem to fire Vaknin, calling into question Vaknin’s rapid dismissal soon after the ministers entered office.

Earlier this month, justices Isaac Amit, Khaled Kabub and David Mintz recommended that Karhi and Amsalem reverse their decision, warning them that if they did not they would likely order them to do so and ordered Karhi to respond by Wednesday.

Writing to the court, Karhi ties the issue to the recent landmark High Court ruling striking down the government’s “reasonableness law” and tells the court that if it reversed his decision to fire Vaknin, it would be illegitimately interfering in his authority as communications minister.

“This is a decision that goes to the root of the authority of the elected [official], and that being the case it is outside of the authority of the court,” writes Karhi in his letter to the High Court.