Ombudsman says Supreme Court judge Kabub was wrong to rule in case involving his kids

State Ombudsman for Judges Uri Shoham upholds a complaint against Supreme Court Judge Chaled Kabub for having ruled on a case involving his children when he was serving as a judge on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court in 2019.

The case was a lawsuit relating to a complicated financial dispute involving property worth several million shekels. An accountant who filed the suit was a good friend of Kabub’s son Walid Kabub, while the companies being sued were represented by Kabub’s children.

Despite this apparent conflict of interests, Kabub issued a decision in the case before ultimately recusing himself from it.

The complaint was brought by two right-wing legal advocacy organizations, Lavi and B’Tzalmo, following a report on the case by the Kan public broadcaster.

“I believe that a review of the case in question… would have revealed that his children are connected, either directly or indirectly, to the proceedings, and that he should not have been involved in the case, and certainly not make any decision in the matter,” writes Shoham.

Kabub, the Supreme Court’s first permanent Muslim justice, has been the subject of several investigative items by Kan news in recent months, which have given rise to at least one other ethics complaint against his conduct.