Two new Supreme Court justices named

The Judicial Selection Committee chose two new Supreme Court justices on Sunday, selecting former attorney general Menachem Mazuz and Tel Aviv District Court Judge Anat Baron out of 14 candidates.

The nine-member committee, chaired by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, was tasked with appointing one male and one female judge. The incoming justices will replace Edna Arbel, who retired in mid-2014; and Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, who plans to retire early next year.

Mazuz, 59, was appointed attorney general in 2004. During his time in office, various public figures were prosecuted, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Baron, 61, was appointed as a judge to the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court in 1994 and to the Tel Aviv District Court in 2002.

The candidates included three district court presidents: David Cheshin of Jerusalem, Dvora Berliner of Tel Aviv, and Yosef Alon of Beersheba.

Nazareth District Court President Yitzhak Cohen, an early candidate, was dropped after a criminal investigation was opened against him in early September over sexual harassment allegations.

Seven other district court judges were in the running as well — Yael Willner of Haifa; Revital Yaffe Katz of Beersheba; Nava Ben-Or of Jerusalem; and Michal Agmon, Ruth Ronen, George Karra and Chaled Kabub of Tel Aviv.

The remaining two candidates were private-sector attorney Eyal Rosovsky, and Prof. Barak Medina, an expert on constitutional law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mazuz had the support of Livni and Grunis.