Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee on Sunday evening elected 61 judges to the various courts. The committee selected the judges without the required quorum since Transport Minister Miri Regev (Likud), and MKs Zvi Hauser (Derech Eretz) and Osnat Mark (Likud) boycotted the session in protest of Judge Abbas Assai’s promotion from the Magistrates to the District Court in Jerusalem, a promotion the committee approved anyway on Sunday evening.
Regev and Mark sent a letter to Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn (Blue&White) warning that if the committee convened and elected the judges without the necessary quorum, they would consider appealing to the High Court of Justice.
MK Hauser boycotted the committee meeting after the justice minister had not responded to his request to postpone a hearing regarding three other appointments to the committee next week.
The committee promoted Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Abbas Assai to the city’s District Court. Assai has been described as the most extreme person to ever be appointed as a district judge. When Arabs file lawsuits against the police or the IDF, he rules in their favor, granting them compensation of tens and hundreds of thousands of shekels, time and time again.
But the committee did not appoint attorney Hisham Shabita as a judge of the Magistrate’s Court on Family Affairs in Lod. Shabita filed a petition against the IDF commander in Judea and Samaria regarding the treatment of terrorists during the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield.
Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) managed to keep these two candidates out of the running for four years in light of their past. But on Sunday, the Nissenkorn bulldozer rammed through the objections.
According to the 1984 Basic Law: the Judiciary, the Judicial Selection Committee has nine members, as follows:
- Justice Minister – Chairman
- Cabinet Minister, chosen by the cabinet
- Two MKs, chosen by the Knesset
- Two members of the Bar Association
- The Chief Justice and two other Supreme Court judges
The committee convened with only six of its nine members, including Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and Supreme Court Justices Uzi Vogelman and Neil Handel, two candidates for the Bar Association – attorneys Ilana Seker and Muhammad Na’amana, and Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn.
According to the language of the law, to convene the committee it is necessary to have a quorum of at least seven members, but a few weeks ago, Minister Nissenkorn asked for a legal opinion from Leah Rakover, the Justice Ministry’s legal council, who interpreted the law to mean that a simple majority of committee members is required when some members leave during a meeting.
Rakover wrote that this issue has not been resolved, and requires a review. She proposed to interpret the law to mean that a quorum of most of the members of the committee is required – that is, five or more members. This is obviously as activist an interpretation of the law as can be imagined, but it allowed Nissenkorn’s committee to continue its meeting without three out of nine members.
Committee member MK Osnat Mark tweeted in response: “Minister Regev and I sent an urgent letter to the Justice Minister demanding a freeze on the procedure for appointing judges which were conducted in violation of Basic Law: the Judiciary.”
Minister Regev’s office responded: “The Minister contacted the Justice Minister and the Attorney General ahead of time to obtain a legal opinion regarding her participation in the meeting regarding the promotion of Judge Abbas Assai. The opinion of the Attorney General, instructing the Minister not to take part in the discussion of his promotion, was delivered in writing to the Minister approximately 25 minutes before the committee convened and the Minister accepted the AG’s position on the matter and acted accordingly.”
The response continued: “Minister Regev’s non-participation in the hearing regarding other judges is due to the fact that no agreements were formed by the committee members. Any other claim in the matter is misleading and distorting. We are sorry that Justice Minister Nissenkorn, as chairman of the committee, held the hearing without three representatives of the public, a fact that causes a sharp crisis of public confidence in the activities of the committee and its leader.”
This one certainly has to go to the high court of justice, with the three justices who participated in Sunday night’s robbery recusing themselves.