Political mud-slinging over judicial appointments in full force

There are some rapid exchanges of fire going on in the political sphere over yesterday’s approval of 61 new justices by a judicial selection panel despite a boycott by right-wing political members.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the committee of impropriety. “Any time elected officials want to appoint anyone, the judicial system ties our hands with demands for dozens of meetings,” he says. “But yesterday the Judicial Appointments Committee checked 136 candidates for 3.5 hours. That’s an average of two minutes per candidate.”

Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn retorts: “Anyone who knows anything about how the Judicial Appointments Committee functions knows well that any meeting is preceded by professional discussions on each candidate that add up to dozens of hours.” He says the committee will continue to work with “no political considerations.”

On the right, the issue has once again raised the right’s longstanding talking point that the justice system must be reformed.

Likud’s Miri Regev attacks Yamina’s Ayelet Shaked for criticizing Likud over the incident. “You’re great on Twitter… great on talk, weak on action. You were justice minister, what did you do [to reform the system].”

Yamina responds: “Likud has taken the day off from failing on coronavirus in order to fail on this too.”