Former High Court Justice Yitzhak Zamir, who retired from the bench in 2001, reproached the court administration for its decision to allow the Shin Bet screen judges nominated for a High Court appointment.
Until now the Shin Bet's background checks were reseved for appointed judges whereas the new policy allows investigators to examine judges' lives while they are still only candidates for the High Court. Among other things, the screening will give the committee charged with appointing judges another parameter to grade the nominees.
It's not that Zamir doesn't support the measure - years ago he led the committee that eventually recommendation the policy be implemented - he's just unsatisfied with the authorization process.
The retired judge told Ynet that the matter should only been decided by the judicial appointments committee, which is headed by the justice minister. And the committee did indeed go into dliberations over the proposal, but it never managed to find the time to complete the process and thus the matter was taken out of the committee's hands.
"Something like this cannot be decided on by a State official, no matter how important they may be," Zamir explained.
"But all in all I'm pleased that the recommendation was accepted. Judges are privy to highly classified information and it is important that they go through the same process as every other civil servant," he said.
The initiative was championed in the past by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak.