Justice Minister Yariv Levin reached agreements today (Friday) with the Committee for the Selection of Judges and the Court Administration on appointments to the District Court.
The names of the candidates expected to be appointed were published in Reshumot.
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Avishai Greenzig, the legal commentator for i24, notes that the names that were published are the names that Levin agreed to name from the start - even without regard to the court order.
Greenzig emphasizes that the announcement in Reshumot was signed by the director of the courts, and not the minister as is customary, to clarify that the names agreed upon are not only for the minister but also for the court administration.
In light of this, the scenario of disobeying the ruling is off the table.
Names of the judges published
Last Sunday, the Minister of Justice suffered a partial loss, after the High Court of Justice ruled, in a ruling issued by all the judges on the panel, that he must convene the Judicial Selection Committee for the purpose of selecting judges for the district courts.
It was further determined that Levin must do so, while giving priority to the district courts in Beer Sheva and Haifa - convene the committee as soon as possible and publish the identities of the candidates for these positions by next Monday.
Levin then said in response: "This is an illegal decision on its face, in which the judiciary takes over the committee for selecting judges, in explicit violation of the provisions of the law. If any of the judges are interested in running the committee for selecting judges and setting the dates for its meetings, they are invited to take off their judge's robe, run for the Knesset, try to get elected, and in negotiations leading up to the formation of the government, demand the justice portfolio. This is what the law states, and it also applies to the judges themselves. Three judges have single-handedly created an unprecedented constitutional crisis, and all responsibility lies with them.".
The ruling came after the minister refused to convene the committee for about a year and a half due to the lack of broad consensus on the identity of the candidates. During this period, a severe shortage of judges arose in all instances of the judiciary - which led to a serious impairment of the functioning of the judicial system.
