Court Slams Lawyer, Winter Candidate for 'Lack of Clean Hands'

The Jerusalem District Court harshly criticized attorney Eran Ben Ari, a candidate for Ofer Vinter's "Am Israel" party and a vocal opponent of Bar Association head Amit Becher, in a ruling issued Wednesday. Ben Ari, along with another opponent of Becher, attorney Yitzhak Netovitch, petitioned the court alleging the Bar Association misused its resources to promote controversial goals, including the protest against the judicial overhaul.

The court summarily dismissed the petition, stating the two acted with a "lack of clean hands" and abused the legal process. Judge Nimrod Flexer found that Ben Ari and Netovitch failed to disclose to the court that the actions they complained about had been approved by votes within the Bar Association's National Council, of which they are members. He also noted they presented a "distorted picture" to the court by omitting this information and failing to mention their involvement in other petitions concerning the same issues.

Judge Flexer ordered the two to pay NIS 10,000 in legal costs, writing that "in this case, the petitioners violated their duty of disclosure in the administrative process, in a manner that amounts to a real lack of clean hands and even constitutes an abuse of the legal process."