Minister, chief justice mend fences as Supreme Court nominees unveiled

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and the president of the Supreme Court on Sunday resolved their differences regarding the minister’s bid to rescind the Supreme Court’s de facto veto power over the appointment of new justices, as a list of the 28 candidates for Israel’s top court was unveiled.

On Thursday, Miriam Naor slammed proposed Knesset legislation, lodged by three Yisrael Beytenu MKs and apparently supported by the justice minister, which would see judges appointed with a regular majority of votes from the nine-person Judicial Selection Committee, over which Shaked presides.

Currently, seven votes — or two less than those present — are required, a situation that in practice prevents the appointment of judges without the Supreme Court’s approval.

“Submitting this bill at the current time represents, under the circumstances, ‘placing a gun on the table,'” Naor wrote to Shaked on Thursday, before announcing that she, as well as the two other justices on the selection panel, would no longer “continue at this time with the dialogue and early consultations to formulate a list of candidates and regarding possible agreements.”

The two met on Sunday for over an hour, during which Shaked emphasized that she was not supporting the bill and would see to it that it does not advance for the time being. Shaked and Naor agreed to resume talks.

Meanwhile, Shaked released the list of 28 Supreme Court justice nominees, which included a legal columnist for the pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom daily and a Christian Arab judge who convicted former president Moshe Katsav of rape.

Shaked’s top pick for the Supreme Court was reportedly Prof. Gideon Sapir of Bar Ilan University, an expert in constitutional law and religion and state issues, who also holds a rabbinical ordination from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

Yosef Elron, the head of the Haifa District Court, was said to be one of the front-runners to fill one of the four soon-to-be vacant seats on the 15-member top court. Elron has the support of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who sits on the appointments committee, according to the Globes business daily.

Also on the list was George Karra, a Christian Arab judge at the Tel Aviv District Court. Karra, who was among the panel of judges who convicted Katsav of rape and sentenced him to seven years in prison, is backed by sitting Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who is among the four set to retire.

Shaked was reportedly objecting to another candidate on the list, Ruth Ronen, a Tel Aviv District Court judge, over her husband, businessman Ze’ev Bergman, who sits on the board of the New Israel Fund, according to Globes. Ronen was being backed by the three justices on the appointment committee, according to the report.

Dr. Aviad Hacohen, who contributes regularly as a legal columnist for Israel Hayom and is the son of former Labor MK Menachem Hacohen, was also among the nominees.

Seven of the 28 nominees are women, and one is Muslim. The selected justices will sit on both the Supreme Court and High Court of Justice.

Along with Naor, Rubenstein and Joubran, the panel is rounded out by Shaked, Kahlon, Likud MK Nurit Koren, Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov, and two representatives from Israel’s Bar Association.

Israel’s highest court has 15 members, though only some of the judges are assigned to each case. The chief justice post is traditionally appointed automatically, based on seniority.

The court has frequently drawn the ire of right-wing and Orthodox politicians with its interventionist ethos pioneered by Aharon Barak, who served as chief justice between 1995 and 2006. In its alternate role as the High Court of Justice, the country’s highest court of equity to which almost anyone can appeal in real-time against the actions of any arm of the state, Israel’s top court has wielded powers considered by many scholars to be greater than in any other democracy.

That power has driven the contentious battle over its composition.

Critics of the court argue that the present system for selecting justices results in a court comprising largely like-minded figures who seek the appointment only of those who share their ideological agenda.

The court’s defenders say its powers have developed to fill the void left by a Knesset that is famously unable to settle key questions of law and society, frequently shirking its responsibility to decide on issues of religious freedoms or to act to protect civil liberties or the rights of Palestinians. In Israel’s fractious society, maintaining a strong independent judiciary, they say, serves as a counterweight against the danger that a “tyranny of the majority” in Israel’s unicameral parliament might trample the rights of those who are not fully represented or sufficiently protected by the political system.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.