High Court justices criticize both petitioners in hearing over appointment of Shin Bet chief

The judges in the High Court hearing over the appointment of a new Shin Bet chief are critical of both petitioners in the case who have challenged the attorney general’s position, from opposite perspectives, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot nominate the next Shin Bet head and that he must delegate the authority to another minister.

Attorney Itamar Meron, representing the Choose Life organization, which demands that Netanyahu be allowed to nominate the next Shin Bet chief, argues that the attorney general made no effort to find a solution in which the prime minister could make the nomination while avoiding the conflict of interest the attorney general said he has due to the Shin Bet security service’s investigations into his close aides.

Meron points out that Netanyahu himself proposed that the incoming Shin Bet chief he chooses would not be involved in those investigations in order to resolve the problem.

“A situation would be created here in which the person in the conflict of interest is saying he will have someone else [deal with the investigation],” remarks Supreme Court President Isaac Amit.

“The prime minister, whose close associates are being investigated, is announcing who will be the investigator, what the boundaries of the investigation will be; this is a problematic situation,” adds Amit.

The Supreme Court president also criticizes Netanyahu for having nominated Maj. Gen. David Zini just a day after the attorney general told him to wait while she draws up parameters for how the appointment can be made, following a High Court ruling in May that Netanyahu had a conflict of interest in firing former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“In a more practical approach by the government, it would have been possible to appoint a Shin Bet chief without getting to this courtroom. That’s what the attorney general tried to do, but the prime minister didn’t wait a few days and rushed to announce the appointment,” says Amit, although he adds, “maybe the gates have not been locked and the matter can be resolved.”

But the court also has extremely tough words for Attorney Ran Shprintzak, who is representing the BaShaar – Academic Community for Israeli Society, which demanded in its petition that an independent, non-governmental selection committee be appointed to select the next Shin Bet chief instead of the prime minister and the government.

“Why should I not reject this petition outright since what you are asking for is not written in any law,” demands Judge Alex Stein, pointing out that nowhere in the Law for the Shin Bet is there any mention of convening such a committee to make the appointment.

“There is a limit to how long we can debate something which has no connection whatsoever to the law. What you are asking is outside the law, it just doesn’t exist,” insists Stein.