Ex-Supreme Court chief pans Levin’s ‘compromise’ as effort to ‘crush legal system’

Former Supreme Court president Esther Hayut says Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s proposal for far-reaching changes to the judicial selection process is the same program for “crushing the legal system” that he sought to advance in 2023, in a different guise.

In her first comments on Levin’s new proposal, Hayut lamented the justice minister’s refusal to fill the position of president that was left empty when she retired 15 months ago, as well as his refusal to fill the open seats on the court.

She also asserts that the new proposal by Levin will politicize the judiciary and do severe harm to its independence and Israel’s democratic identity.

“Unfortunately, despite the difficult days we are going through… there is someone who thinks this is an opportune moment to advance a program that I labeled in January 2023 as a program for the crushing of the legal system,” says Hayut at a conference in her honor at Tel Aviv University.

“Make no mistake, the attempt to present the proposal currently being advanced as a ‘compromise’ and as a ‘broad agreement’ is a sleight of hand.

“This is the same lady in a different robe. The same politicization, the same mortal blow to the independence [and] impartiality, of the judicial branch, and by extension to the democratic identity of the state.”