Lapid says opposition rep will call vote for new Supreme Court chief if Levin refuses

If Justice Minister Yariv Levin does not hold a vote on the next High Court president by January 16, then MK Karine Elharrar will “will do it in his place,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares during his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Last week the High Court of Justice ordered Levin to hold a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee for a new president of the Supreme Court by January 16, a move the justice minister has resisted making for over a year since such a vote with the committee’s current makeup would hand the role to Justice Isaac Amit, a liberal judge viewed as adversarial by Levin and others in the hard-right government.

If Levin does not follow the court’s order, the committee will be empowered to hold a vote without him.

The committee is composed of nine members: the Supreme Court president; two other Supreme Court justices selected by the justices of the Supreme Court; the justice minister, who chairs the committee, and another cabinet minister; two members of the Knesset chosen by the Knesset in a secret vote (usually, but not always, one MK from the coalition and one from the opposition); and two members of the Israel Bar Association chosen by the association’s national council.

Elharrar represents the opposition on the committee.

“The majority in the committee wants to elect a president of the Supreme Court, and does not need Yariv to put it to a vote. If he refuses, it has no legal validity and no practical validity and Karine will put it to a vote,” he declares.

Following the court’s ruling, Levin indicated plans to revive the government’s frozen judicial overhaul program, posting a lengthy attack on court to Facebook over the weekend in which he accused it of usurping the Knesset’s legislative role and the government’s executive powers.

The last time the government tried to pass this agenda it led to 1,800 deaths, Lapid says, blaming October 7 and the subsequent war on Levin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Now, with many of the hostages still held in Gaza and soldiers dying every day, “Levin is dragging us back into yet another attempt to destroy Israeli democracy,” he says. “If we don’t stop Yariv Levin, we need to start asking ourselves today: How many will be killed this time? How many will be injured this time? How many fronts will open this time? How many [international] arrest warrants will be issued for IDF soldiers because of one insane person?”

If Levin manages to push through his overhaul, “Israel will not be a democracy. If Israel is not a democracy, it will not exist,” he continues. “This is not a debate about the judiciary and the legislative branch, it is an existential threat to the State of Israel because of Yariv Levin’s madness, and because of Netanyahu’s criminal problems.”