Attorney General’s Office to Back Petition Against Judea Eliyahu’s Appointment as Israel Land Authority CEO

Israel’s attorney general’s office will recommend that the High Court of Justice strike down the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu as director general of the Israel Land Authority. The decision was conveyed today to the appointing ministers, Bezalel Smotrich, Haim Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and was made unanimously after Calcalist exposed a conflict involving a member of the selection committee, Prof. Idit Solberg.

Solberg also recommended Eliyahu’s appointment and serves as chairwoman of Solberg Consulting, a company owned by her husband, Shay. The firm works with government ministries and in 2025 alone provided services to the Housing Ministry worth about NIS 10 million. Since the Israel Land Authority is subordinate to the housing minister, the attorney general’s office concluded that Solberg was involved in appointing someone who could affect the company’s revenues. Smotrich, who promoted Eliyahu’s candidacy, has been a political partner and friend of Eliyahu for about 27 years.

The ministers must now decide whether to adopt the legal opinion or fight the petitions already filed against the appointment through private counsel at the High Court. If the government accepts the opinion, it will have to decide whether to restart the search process for a new CEO, including whether to form a new selection committee, issue a fresh call for candidates, or limit the race to candidates from the previous round.

The issue is especially urgent because once legislation dissolving the Knesset passes its third reading, the government enters an election period and cannot appoint senior officials. In the interim, after former CEO Yanki Quint left in December 2025 and before Eliyahu’s appointment in May, Idan Moualem, head of the National Public Transport Authority, served as acting CEO. The conflict involving Solberg was not the only problem in the process, but it was the point at which the attorney general’s office decided the committee itself was disqualified.

Eliyahu’s appointment triggered three petitions to the High Court. In its response, the state effectively admitted that legal problems had arisen in the process, but argued that judicial intervention in senior government appointments should be reserved for extremely rare cases. At a hearing last Wednesday, held the same morning Calcalist published its report on the money Solberg Consulting received from the Housing Ministry, the court issued an order nisi requiring the state to explain why Eliyahu’s appointment should stand. The burden has now shifted to the state, and the government must submit its response by July 1, in about ten days.