Right-wing activists blast Supreme Court Justice Amit, at justice minister’s invitation
In unprecedented step, Yariv Levin allows critics of acting chief justice to address Judicial Selection Committee; MK Elharrar: He’s ‘abusing’ his position to humiliate court
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Right-wing activists unleashed a string of attacks on Acting Supreme Court President Isaac Amit during a hearing of the Judicial Selection Committee as Justice Minister Yariv Levin continued his tactics to stall the appointment of a new court president.
In an unprecedented step on Tuesday, Levin invited the authors of written objections to Amit’s candidacy for court president to address the members of the committee. Thereby the heads of right-wing legal activism organizations and chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman were given large amounts of time to chastise Amit for his legal positions and rulings.
Amit, together with his fellow Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who is a candidate for court vice-president, left the hearing during the debate because they had a conflict of interest from participating due to their candidacies for the positions under discussion.
The High Court of Justice in December ordered Levin to hold a vote on appointing a new Supreme Court president by January 16, owing to his refusal to fill the position since October 2023 after the last president retired.
Levin lacks the votes on the committee to have conservative justice Yosef Elron, who he supports, elected while there’s a majority of votes on the panel to appoint Amit, a liberal. As a result, Levin has been slow-walking the committee hearings, and is even considering passing legislation to circumvent the High Court’s order.
Another committee hearing is scheduled for Thursday, although it seems likely that Levin will continue with his delay tactics and stretch out the process until the last possible moment next week.
At the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing, both MK Karin Elharrar, representing the Knesset opposition on the committee, and Supreme Court Justice Daphne Barak Erez, demanded a vote in the panel on whether or not to hear the arguments of the objectors who had been invited by Levin to speak.
Levin to all intents ignored their request, saying it had been “received” but carried on with the hearing regardless.
Elharrar then demanded that the minutes of the hearing record that the failure to vote on hearing the objectors went against the position of the legal adviser to the committee.
Addressing the committee after Amit and Sohlberg left, Iska Bina, head of the Movement for Governability and Democracy, which was founded by Rothman, criticized the High Court of Justice for having ordered Levin to convene the committee in the first place, after he refused to do so for the first 11 months of his tenure as justice minister.
In a post on X following the hearing, Bina said Amit, Sohlberg, and Justice Daphne Barak-Erez had a conflict of interest from voting in the committee on a new Supreme Court president, although neither Amit nor Sohlberg would be able to vote for themselves if and when a vote is called for filling the president and vice-president positions.
Shamai Glick, head of the right-wing Betzalmo organization claimed after his address that “half of the people have no trust in Justice Amit as president,” and accused Amit of issuing rulings undermining Israeli security.
“We spoke about the importance of Israeli citizens being able to respect rulings they do not agree with, on condition that the judge is trustworthy,” Glick added.
Elharrar accused Levin at the end of the hearing of “abusing his position” to “humiliate the members of the committee,” specifically Amit and Sohlberg.
“It’s unthinkable that a minister who puts his personal and political interests before the good of the public can lead the justice system of the state of Israel,” said Elharrar, accusing Levin and the government in general of trying to “destroy the legal system and annul Israeli democracy” through their efforts to overhaul the judiciary.
She pointed to recent incidents in which Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said he would defy an order of the High Court and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint an acting civil service commissioner despite the opposition of the attorney general. These incidents were further examples of the government’s actions undermining the rule of law.
