Conservative Justice Yosef Elron has applied to become the next Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court.
Elron’s letter to Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the current Chief Justice, Esther Hayut, may throw a monkey wrench into the carefully designed political machinery designed by the left-leaning court.
By seniority, Justice Yitzhak Amit is expected to follow Hayut as the next Chief Justice when she retires on October 16, her 70th birthday.
Justice Anat Baron, who is the next most senior Justice, retires on October 12; Justice Uzi Vogelman, the most senior Justice after Baron, is also nearing retirement age and may therefore decline the post, which is appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee, usually according to seniority.
Elron has served as a member of the country’s judiciary for nearly 30 years.
Who is Justice Yosef Elron?
Born to Iraqi Jewish parents in Haifa, the youngest of nine children, Elron served four years in the IDF and was discharged as a lieutenant. He then spent six years in the UK, studying law and working in security organizations before returning to Israel.
Elron was admitted to the Israel Bar Association in 1985, became a judge in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court in 1994 and completed a master’s degree in National Security Administration at the University of Haifa in 2001. Two years later he became a judge on the Haifa District Court; during his term he also served as a judge on the IDF Military Court of Appeals with the rank of lieutenant colonel (reserve).
The justice was appointed President of the Haifa District Court in 2013, and served on multiple other panels, heading several. He became an Israel Supreme Court Justice in October 2017.
Elron turns 68 this year.
What’s Next?
The justice noted in his letter to Hayut and Levin that his application to the list of Chief Justice candidates is not dependent upon the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, which is to be reconsidered under the government’s planned reform of the judicial system.
Levin has requested the Judicial Selection Committee to refrain from convening for the time being in accordance with his intention to reconfigure the body.
A High Court of Justice hearing on the matter is set for September 7.
