PM taps Chief Rabbinate director general as acting Civil Service commissioner

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday announced that he intends to appoint the director general of the Chief Rabbinate, Yehuda Cohen, as acting Civil Service commissioner.

The announcement came after the premier was forced to walk back his previous nomination for the role, Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal, following the Attorney General’s Office’s opposition to the appointment and Bar Tal’s subsequent request that it be annulled.

Netanyahu asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to issue a legal opinion on the appointment within 24 hours.

If approved, Cohen will serve in the role for an initial three-month period, with the option to extend, Hebrew media reported.

Baharav-Miara and the government have been engaged in legal battle over filling the position, empty since December last year, with Baharav-Miara opposing the government’s proposed method for appointing a permanent commissioner, which led to a recent High Court decision siding with the attorney general.

The ruling struck down an August 2024 cabinet resolution to create a formula whereby the prime minister, in an ad hoc process, would nominate one candidate and have their background vetted, but not their qualifications for the position. After legal pressure, the government agreed to have their qualifications vetted too.

The High Court, in its ruling, argued that the system did not include sufficient guardrails to guarantee the independence, impartiality, and apolitical nature of the Civil Service commissioner role, and neither would it ensure that the best candidate would be appointed to the job.

While the Law for the Civil Service states that it is not obligatory to issue a public tender for the role of commissioner, the High Court ruled that the appointment process must nevertheless be competitive.

The question of who will lead the Civil Service has been up in the air since December 2024, when previous commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz’s term ended.

Netanyahu first appointed attorney Roi Kahlon as acting commissioner to replace Hershkowitz, but the move was opposed by Baharav-Miara, who argued that Kahlon did not meet the criteria for the position.

After several government watchdog groups petitioned the High Court against Kahlon’s appointment, it ruled that the temporary appointment could stand, but that he could only serve for three months.

Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs lambasted the Attorney General’s Office in a letter announcing the cancellation of Bar Tal’s appointment last week, accusing it of “conquering” the Civil Service Commission, and of serially thwarting the government’s efforts to fill the position of commissioner.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.