Justice Minister Yariv Levin told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday that it is no longer realistic to advance permanent appointments to the Haifa and Beersheba district courts before the election timetable effectively freezes the process, offering instead to move forward with temporary appointments to address the courts’ most urgent needs.
The position was filed in response to the court’s request that Levin say whether he would accelerate permanent appointments to the two district courts, after justices pressed him at a Sunday hearing over why those vacancies had been left out of his current appointment plan.
Levin, who chairs the Judicial Selection Committee, said that after reviewing the matter and taking into account the court’s comments, the political calendar, and the need for committee members to properly examine potential district court candidates, publishing the names of candidates in the state gazette and convening the committee to choose permanent district court judges was “not realistic” at this stage.
The distinction is important because judicial appointments cannot be made overnight. The names of candidates must first be published, and only after the legally required waiting period can the Judicial Selection Committee vote on them. With elections approaching, the window for ordinary appointments is closing quickly.
Instead, Levin said he was working in full coordination with the Courts Administration director to fill immediate gaps in the court system. According to the filing, he will act to appoint judges temporarily to the Haifa and Beersheba district courts under the procedure set out in law.
Temporary appointments would be complete after Judicial Selection Committee meets
Those temporary appointments, Levin said, would be completed after the Judicial Selection Committee meets on June 25, June 30, and July 1. Those meetings are already planned to address appointments in the Beersheba, Haifa, and northern magistrates’ courts, as well as traffic, juvenile, and family courts, and senior registrars throughout the magistrates’ court system.
Levin said the Courts Administration director had informed him that once those appointments are completed, the urgent judicial needs to be addressed before the election would receive a response. On that basis, Levin asked the High Court to dismiss the petition.
The case was filed by the Movement for Quality Government, which has asked the court to force Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill vacancies across the judiciary. The group argues that Levin has unlawfully slowed or conditioned appointments by insisting on broad agreement in the committee, even though the law allows appointments by majority vote.
At Sunday’s hearing, the justices narrowed the immediate focus to the district courts in Haifa and Beersheba, where they said the need for permanent judges was especially urgent. Justice Ofer Grosskopf questioned why Levin was relying on temporary appointments rather than bringing permanent candidates to a vote, saying the minister was offering “creative solutions” to a problem he had created.
Justice Alex Stein also raised concern about temporary appointments, saying they may create problematic incentives for judges serving temporarily in higher courts.
Levin has rejected the claim that he neglected the system, saying he has already advanced nearly 200 judicial and registrar appointments by agreement. But the petitioners say major vacancies remain and that delaying appointments now could push them past the election and into the next Knesset, when a controversial law changing the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee is set to take effect.
