Justice minister publishes list of candidates for Supreme Court
In the midst of an ongoing feud with Israeli Supreme Court President Miriam Naor, Justice Minister Shaked publishes list of 28 candidates, four of whom will fill soon-to-be-vacant positions in the country’s highest legal body.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked published on Sunday her list of 28 candidates for the Supreme Court, following an ongoing feud with Israeli Supreme Court President Miriam Naor over the selection process which has caused bitter enmity between the two.
Four justices will be chosen to replace Naor, as well as justices Zvi Zilbertal, Salim Joubran and Elyakim Rubinstein, all of whom will retire over the next year.
Naor announced last Thursday that she would cease consultations with Shaked over the selection of judges, after the latter appeared to condone a law bill by MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) altering the nomination process to the 15-member court.
Justices are chosen by a nine-person Judicial Selection Committee. Currently, nominees must win the support of seven of the nine voting members for election to the high court, meaning new justices must obtain the approval of current judges serving on the committee. Ilatov’s proposal would reduce the election vote to a simple majority.
In response to Ilatov’s proposal, Naor wrote a scathing letter in which she accused Shaked of trying to unfairly reshape the nomination process and of “holding a gun to the Court’s head.” Shaked has been trying to push for candidates who share her ideology into what she regards as an overly-activist court.
During a meeting between the two which took place on Sunday, Shaked agreed to postpone the debate on Ilatov’s contentious bill.
Most of the current nominees currently serve on lower courts, but the list also includes some university professors and one practicing attorney. Five are considered to be preferred by Minister Shaked, while nine others are the Israel Bar Association’s candidates. Three are favorites of the current Supreme Court justices. Justice George Karra, one of the two Arab nominees on the list, famously sentenced former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison.
Article printed with the permission of TPS
