Israel's Supreme Court, led by President Isaac Amit and Justices Alex Stein and Ruth Ronen, issued an interim order on Wednesday freezing the government's decisions on appointments to the Second Authority for Television and Radio Council. Until the court rules on the petitions filed over the matter, the outgoing council will continue serving in its current composition, in line with the Second Authority Law.
The justices said they were sharply concerned by the circumstances surrounding the resignation of several council members. After reviewing affidavits submitted by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and the resigning members, they said there was a "strong suspicion" that the move was intended to thwart earlier court decisions and obstruct the court's ability to examine the petitioners' claims.
The court pointed to several factors behind that conclusion, including the minister's, or his representatives', involvement in the dismissal decisions, the suspiciously close timing between the resignations and the court petition, and the fact that the council members chose to resign only from the outgoing council while expressing a wish to serve on the incoming one. The judges said this conduct was incompatible with the duty of loyalty imposed on council members.
To prevent the authority from being paralyzed while the interim order is in effect, the court ruled that the resigning members will not be counted for quorum purposes in the outgoing council. The final judgment on the petitions will be delivered as soon as possible.
