Judicial Selection Committee finally convenes to elect Supreme Court chief; Levin absent
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Under contentious circumstances, the Judicial Selection Committee convenes with the election of a new Supreme Court president and vice president the only item on the agenda, after Justice Minister Yariv Levin refused to appoint a new president for almost 16 months.
All three government representatives on the committee, Levin, Settlements Minister Orit Strock, and Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer, boycott the meeting in protest at the order by the Supreme Court, in its capacity as the High Court of Justice, instructing Levin to finally elect a new court president.
Levin opposes the appointment of Justice Isaac Amit, a liberal, who will likely be elected in the vote. The justice minister has sought since the beginning of his time in office to change the way the Supreme Court president is elected in order to appoint a conservative and take the court in a rightward direction.
The High Court has ordered Levin to convene the committee to elect a new president four times since September, ruling that the minister overstepped his authority in refusing to make the appointment for such an extended period of time.
Levin has nevertheless refused to convene the committee himself despite these orders, the latest of which came on Friday, and is not attending today’s meeting.
He does appear, however, to have allowed the director of the Israel Courts Administration Judge Tzahi Ouziel, who serves as the secretary of the committee, to convene the committee instead, in order to comply with the court’s ruling.
Levin has angrily rejected the authority of the court to order him to call a vote on electing a new president, accusing it of encroaching on his authority as justice minister.
He has also sought to further delay making the appointment in light of a slew of allegations against Amit that he served as a judge on cases in which he had conflicts of interest.
Amit has argued the allegations have ignored key facts regarding each case which excluded the possibility that he had a conflict of interest in them.
The Judicial Selection Committee in its meeting today is expected to review the allegations against Amit before holding a vote. In another fight between Levin and the judiciary, the justice minister has refused to appoint a new ombudsman for the judiciary who would ordinarily have investigated the allegations against Amit, leaving only the Judicial Selection Committee itself to review the accusations.
Levin and other members of the government have vowed to boycott Amit as head of the judiciary in protest at how the High Court has forced a vote to make the appointment.