Justice minister slams High Court order, says he’ll boycott next Supreme Court president

Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that he will boycott the next president of the Supreme Court because, he contends, the next president will be elected in an “illegal manner” after the High Court ordered him today to convene the Judicial Selection Committee and choose a new leader of Israel’s top court.

“A president of the Supreme Court who is appointed in a coercive and invalid manner brings the declining trust in the court to an even deeper low,” fumes Levin.

“I will not be able to work with a president who was illegally appointed by his friends, and who is illegitimate in the eyes of a vast [section of the] public. The irresponsible order tramples on democracy and the road to agreements that was paved in recent months, and sets Israel back.”

Levin has refused for months to hold a vote on a new president owing to his desire to have the strongly conservative Yosef Elron appointed president, or alternatively, have one of two hardline conservative academics appointed to one of the two empty seats on the Supreme Court.

Levin fumes in his response that the High Court’s ruling “has no comparison in a Western democracy” and says it violates “an explicit law,” adding that it constitutes a “hostile takeover of the Judicial Selection Committee and the assumption of the authorities of the minister in violation of the law.”

He notes that “illegitimate appointments” in the legal system were why he embarked last year on the judicial overhaul agenda, which would have given the government greater control over the judiciary, and says that the High Court has abused his decision to halt that agenda following the October 7 attacks.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which petitioned the High Court against Levin’s refusal to appoint a new president, describes it as “the most significant victory for Israeli democracy and the separation of powers.”

Tomer Naor, an attorney for the organization, accuses Levin of having violated the law by refusing to appoint a new president “in order to turn himself into a veto-wielding player with limitless power.”