High Court demands government defend appointment of civil service commissioner

The High Court of Justice issues a conditional order, instructing the government to defend its decision for appointing a civil service commissioner on an ad hoc basis and in a non-competitive manner.

The decision is the latest in a long-running legal dispute, in which the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have sought to handpick a new head of the Civil Service, who has broad authority, including powers over senior appointments in the Civil Service.

Following petitions by several government watchdog groups, the High Court orders the state to explain why a new commissioner should not be chosen by a search committee that evaluates several candidates, instead of the government’s preferred method of choosing one candidate and simply having that individual vetted.

The court also orders the government to explain why it wants to use the same ad hoc process it used in 2018 to appoint the new commissioner, when it resolved in 2018 to formulate a permanent process for making the appointment.

The court adds that its order from December 2024 — that the government freeze the process of appointing a new Civil Service commissioner — and the legal proceedings against its decision are underway.

Any responses the petitioners or the government may wish to file must be submitted by February 26, and a hearing will be held in the first half of March.

The first petitions were filed against the government’s desire to appoint a commissioner without a search committee back in August last year, but were re-filed after the government slightly modified its decision.

In the meantime, the government appointed a temporary commissioner, a matter that was also the subject of petitions, with several groups claiming he was unqualified. The High Court ruled that the temporary appointment, Roi Kahlon, could stand, but that he could only serve for three months.