High Court Hears Challenge to New Judicial Appointments Law as Political Clash Deepens

An 11-justice panel of Israel’s High Court of Justice met Sunday morning to hear petitions against the controversial law passed by the Knesset last week to change the committee that selects judges. At the start of the hearing, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit said, “Instead of two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, two politicians should be removed.” He also said, “We recommend not focusing on the question of the court’s authority to strike down Basic Laws, which has already been decided.”

The legislation was approved on Thursday and is one of the flagship measures of the judicial overhaul. After the vote, opposition leaders Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan issued a joint statement saying that “in the next government we will make sure the law changing the judge-selection committee is repealed.” They argued that the government had just approved a law meant to make judges subordinate to politicians, while 59 hostages remain held in Gaza, and said the coalition was neglecting the “real tasks” of security, the economy and national unity.

MK Gilad Kariv called the approved laws “one of the biggest deceptions” by what he described as the “fake news coalition,” saying they had no broad agreement or compromise and were paving the way for the full politicization of the justice system. He vowed that he and “hundreds of thousands of Israelis” would continue the struggle and later work to cancel the legislation.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin welcomed the reform, saying, “We made history.” He said the committee’s composition had been changed to be balanced and representative, ensuring professional appointments and greater diversity across the courts, including the Supreme Court. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who drafted the framework with Levin, called it an “evolutionary and balanced” change and said opposition attacks were unsupported, adding that they had already accepted a Herzog plan two years ago that included removing the Bar Association from the committee.