From the Liveblog of
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Smotrich dismisses High Court ruling on selecting Supreme Court chief as ‘scandalous and aggressive’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich dismisses the High Court of Justice as irresponsible and disconnected and promises that the government will relaunch its frozen judicial overhaul in the wake of the court’s ruling ordering Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee.
Smotrich tweets that he was informed of the “disconnected, scandalous and aggressive” ruling after coming out of a discussion on the state budget with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that “this is exactly the difference between national responsibility and national irresponsibility.”
“While we are waging a war of existence on seven fronts, the court continues to trample democracy and the rule of law,” he continues, arguing that the justices are “unraveling the foundations of society.”
“We support Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who stands on behalf of all of us against the only body in the country that does not recognize the limits of power. The fixes to the legal system are essential for a Jewish and democratic Israel and we will return to them immediately after the war,” he says.
Levin has refused for months to hold a vote on a new court 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.
