Levin Drops Objection to Publishing Amit’s Appointment in the Official Gazette
The High Court of Justice gave the force of a ruling on Tuesday to an agreement reached during a hearing on a petition concerning the publication in the Official Gazette of Judge Yitzhak Amit’s appointment as president of the Supreme Court. The agreement was reached following a direct recommendation by the panel of judges hearing the case, and it was accepted without opposition from Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Levin said that, "The attempt to force me to recognize Amit has failed again. The High Court judges convened the Judicial Selection Committee themselves by means of an unlawful order they issued, and 'appointed' Amit themselves, and now they are also publishing his 'appointment' in the Official Gazette themselves. None of this will change the simple fact, his 'appointment' was made through an unlawful and fundamentally invalid process. I do not recognize an unlawful appointment and I will not recognize it."
On Sunday, the Supreme Court ruled in a judgment issued by all three judges on the panel, Ofer Grosskopf, Alex Stein and Justice Yechiel Kasher, that Levin has a duty to cooperate with Supreme Court President Amit. Levin responded to the ruling sarcastically, saying, "In a rare case, I certainly agree with the finding in the ruling that the justice minister should work in cooperation with the president of the Supreme Court, when there is one."
At the outset, the Supreme Court made clear that under the conditions set out in the Basic Law, The Judiciary, once Judge Amit was lawfully elected by the Judicial Selection Committee on January 26 last year and took the oath of office before the President of the State on February 13, 2025, he began serving as president of the Supreme Court. The judges emphasized that "anyone seeking to deny this reality is in the same position as someone who believes that at present Mr. Isaac Herzog is not the President of the State, Member of Knesset Benjamin Netanyahu is not the prime minister, and Member of Knesset Amir Ohana is not the Speaker of the Knesset."
