High Court Issues Deadline for Appointing Justice Minister

Israel’s High Court has given the government a forty-eight hour deadline for appointing a permanent justice minister. That would give Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ and coalition partner Benny Gantz until Tuesday evening to designate someone for the post.

Regarding vacancies in other ministries—Science and Technology Ministry, the Social Equality Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry—they must be filled by next week, according to The Times of Israel on Sunday afternoon.

In response, Netanyahu committed to convening the cabinet to discuss the matter by Tuesday, but no more than that, according to media reports.

Subsequently, Gantz tweeted: “I will demand at the cabinet meeting that I be appointed permanent justice minister in order to continue to maintain democracy, and in accordance with the agreement signed with Likud.” Gantz was serving a three-month temporary stint as justice minister until that run out earlier in the month.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of intentionally seeking to weaken the justice system due to his ongoing corruption trial, as he hopes to appoint a minister who will be friendlier to his cause.

One of the consequences of the absence of a justice minister, who has the authority to exempt prisoners from in-person court hearings in favor of virtual hearings due to covid concerns, many unvaccinated prisoners would have to come to court without adequate precautions for spreading infection.

Due to what they believe is the urgency of the matter, High Court President Esther Hayut, Justice Neal Hendel and Justice Uzi Vogelman initially demanded a resolution by last Thursday, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Hayut said that, “the lawless space is leading to a situation of extreme unreasonableness.”

Vogelman said, “Appointing ministers is not a political issue – it is an overwhelmingly constitutional and governance issue.”

When the government asked to defer the issue to Sunday, Hendel initially said, “it is impossible to postpone, even until Sunday. We don’t know what the consequences would be.”