Group asks court to hold Justice Minister in contempt over stalled judge appointments

The Movement for Quality Government filed a petition on Sunday seeking contempt-of-court enforcement against Justice Minister Yariv Levin, after the High Court ordered him to move quickly on appointing judges to all district courts nationwide. The group says Levin has so far published candidates only for the Beersheba and Haifa district courts, where shortages are especially severe, and argues that he is “blatantly violating the ruling.”

The petition says Levin’s conduct makes it harder to fill judicial posts at a time when the normal appointment timetable is tightening ahead of elections. By custom, the Judicial Selection Committee does not meet during the three months before an election, and candidates must be published in the official gazette 45 days before selection. The committee is scheduled to meet on June 28, June 30 and July 1 to appoint magistrates’ court judges.

The contempt procedure is meant to enforce court decisions and is considered highly unusual. In extreme cases, the court can impose fines or even imprisonment. Here, the group is asking the High Court to force Levin to comply immediately with the ruling issued by justices Ofer Grosskopf, Alexandar Stein and Gila Canfy-Steinitz.

That ruling unanimously ordered the minister to publish the district-court candidate list in the official gazette “without any further delay,” prioritizing Beersheba and Haifa, for which the deadline runs to June 8, 2026, and to convene the committee as soon as possible because of the approaching election date. The court is expected to receive Levin’s response and then hold a hearing. It is not expected to use the harshest contempt powers, and if it intervenes, it may instead set a deadline for publication before the committee meets.

Attorney Yael Bloch of the Movement for Quality Government said, “Two weeks after the Supreme Court’s clear and sharp ruling, the justice minister is continuing the same failure that the judicial system has paid for for years, and continues to avoid advancing the appointment of judges to the district courts.” The petition says this is a clear case of contempt of a judicial ruling. It also notes that hearings have dragged on for about three years, with about 51 judicial posts currently vacant, another 15 expected to open by the end of 2026, and roughly 150 positions in total needing to be filled, about 15% of all judicial posts in the court system.