MK Simcha Rothman, chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, opened a direct attack on Supreme Court President Justice Yitzhak Amit. In remarks he published, Rothman said, "כל מילה נוספת מיותרת" and argued that Amit does not understand democracy or what accountability to the public means.
Rothman said the level of ignorance shown by the person now leading Israel's court system is deeply troubling. His criticism focused on Israel's judicial selection process, a central flashpoint in the country's legal and political dispute.
He said Israel's current system, in which judges hold decisive weight on the committee that selects judges, is far outside what is common in the Western world. According to Rothman, almost no country gives sitting judges a veto over who joins the bench, and in most democracies judges do not take part in the selection process at all.
The confrontation marks another escalation in the long-running tension between the legislature and the judiciary. Coalition politicians have been criticizing the Judicial Selection Committee for a long time, saying the current arrangement lets Supreme Court justices reproduce their own ranks and block judges with different views. Rothman's comments indicate that, despite the leadership change at the top of the judiciary, the dispute over judicial reform and the balance of power between the branches is still far from over.
