Judicial Selection Committee (Israel)
Encyclopedia
The Israeli Judicial Committee is the body that nominates Judges for Israeli courts
Israeli judicial system
The Israeli judicial system consists of secular courts and religious courts. The law courts constitute a separate and independent unit of Israel's Ministry of Justice...

. After their selection the judges are appointed by the President
President of Israel
The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

.

The committee was established in 1953, following the enactment of the Judges Bill. The founding of the committee was intended to prevent outside political pressure, and so ensure the independence of the judges.

Appointment of judges before the committee's establishment

Until the enactment of the Judges bill, the Justice Minister
Justice Minister of Israel
The Justice Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and a position in the Israeli cabinet. The current minister is Ya'akov Ne'eman, an independent who is not a member of the Knesset....

 appointed the judges. Only the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

 needed approval of the Cabinet
Cabinet of Israel
The Cabinet of Israel is a formal body composed of government officials called ministers, chosen and led by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must appoint members based on the distribution of votes to political parties during legislative elections, and its composition must be approved by a...

 and the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

.

When the State of Israel was established, the judges appointed by the Mandate government left the country, but in most courts the Jewish judges remained, allowing the continued operation of the courts following the Declaration of Independence. In the Supreme Court only one Jewish judge, Gad Frumkin, was serving at the time.

Pinchas Rosen
Pinchas Rosen
Pinchas Rosen was an Israeli politician and statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948-51, 1952–56, and 1958-61. He was also leader of the Independent Liberals during the 1960s.-Biography:...

, the first Justice Minister
Justice Minister of Israel
The Justice Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and a position in the Israeli cabinet. The current minister is Ya'akov Ne'eman, an independent who is not a member of the Knesset....

 decided not to continue Frumkin's tenure, and appointed five new justices, who were confirmed by the provisional government
Provisional government of Israel
The provisional government of Israel was the temporary cabinet which governed Israel from shortly before independence until the formation of the first government in March 1949 following the first Knesset elections in January that year....

 and provisional state council
Provisional State Council
The Provisional State Council was the temporary legislature of Israel from shortly before independence until the election of the first Knesset in January 1949...

 in July 1948. The five judges were appointed on a partisan basis: the court president Moshe Smoira
Moshe Smoira
Moshe Smoira was an Israeli jurist and the first President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Biography:Smoira was born in 1888 in Königsberg, in the German Empire to Leiser and Perel, Hasidic immigrants from Russia. He studied Hebrew and became a Zionist...

 and Yitzhak Olshan
Yitzhak Olshan
Yitzhak Olshan was an Israeli jurist and the second President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Biography:Olshan was born in Kaunas in the Russian Empire in 1895 and immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1912. He joined the Hagana and the Jewish Legion. He studied law and oriental studies at the...

 were identified with Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...

; Menachem Dunkelblum was associated with the General Zionists
General Zionists
The General Zionists were centrists within the Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. Their political arm is an ancestor of the modern-day Likud.-History:...

; Rabbi Simcha Assaf represented the religious faction; and Zalman Cheshin was mistakenly considered to be a revisionist
Hatzohar
Hatzohar , officially Brit HaTzionim HaRevizionistim was a Revisionist Zionist organisation and political party in Mandate Palestine and newly-independent Israel.-Background:...

, although in fact he belonged to the Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

.

Judges bill

In 1952, the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 passed the Judges bill, which stipulates methods of appointing judges (among other things). This bill proposed that the President
President of Israel
The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

 will appoint the judges, at the suggestion of the Minister of Justice, in accordance with the recommendation by a committee of these ten members: the Justice Minister
Justice Minister of Israel
The Justice Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and a position in the Israeli cabinet. The current minister is Ya'akov Ne'eman, an independent who is not a member of the Knesset....

 (committee chairman); another Cabinet
Cabinet of Israel
The Cabinet of Israel is a formal body composed of government officials called ministers, chosen and led by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must appoint members based on the distribution of votes to political parties during legislative elections, and its composition must be approved by a...

 minister; Chief justice and another judge of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

; the Attorney General
Attorney General of Israel
The Attorney General of Israel stands at the head of the legal system of the executive branch and the head of the public legal establishment, in charge of protecting the rule of law and as such entrusted with protecting the public interest from possible harm by government authorities...

 (who will be entitled to appoint in his place the Solicitor General); the Dean of the Faculty of Law in the Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

; two Knesset members; and two members of the Law Council (now the Israel Bar Association‏‏).

Committee structure today

According to Basic Law: the Judiciary, established in 1984, The committee has nine members, as follows:
  • Justice Minister - Chairman
  • Cabinet Minister, chosen by the Cabinet.
  • Two Knesset Members, chosen by the Knesset (Since 1992 they usually appoint one member from the coalition and one from the opposition).
  • Two members of the Bar Association‏‏ (Usually selected by the two largest factions in the bureau).
  • The Chief Justice, and two other judges of the Supreme Court‏‏ (replaced every three years by the panel of judges, the selection is usually by seniority).

The committee's current members

Representatives of the Supreme Court
  • Justice Dorit Beinisch
    Dorit Beinisch
    Dorit Beinisch is the president of the Supreme Court of Israel. She was appointed to the position on September 14, 2006, after the retirement of Aharon Barak. She is the first woman to serve as president of the Supreme Court.-Biography:...

     - Chief Justice. Member since March 2, 2004.
  • Judge Edmund Levi - Supreme Court Justice. Member since March 24, 2008.
  • Judge Asher Dan Grunis
    Asher Dan Grunis
    Asher Grunis is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, appointed to the Court in 2003.Born in Israel, Grunis served in the Israeli army , earned an LL.B. degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was admitted to the Israeli bar in 1969...

     - Supreme Court Justice. Member since September 2009.


Bar Association representatives
  • Attorney Rachel Ben-Ari - Head of the district of Haifa
    Haifa
    Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

     in the Bar Association. Member since December 3, 2008.
  • Attorney Pinchas Marinsky - Member of the "Party to save the profession" in the Bar Association. Member since December 4, 2005.


Israeli government officials
  • Ya'akov Ne'eman - Justice Minister - Chairman of the Committee since March 31, 2009.
  • Gilad Erdan
    Gilad Erdan
    Gilad Menashe Erdan is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and as the country's Minister of Environmental Protection. He is currently the chairman of the Likud Youth.-Biography:...

     - Environmental Protection Minister of Israel
    Environmental Protection Minister of Israel
    The Environmental Protection Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Environment and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. The post was created on 22 December 1988, and until May 2006 was known as the Minister of the Environment...

    . Member since July 3, 2006.


Knesset representatives
  • MK David Rotem
    David Rotem
    David Rotem is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.-Biography:Rotem grew up in Jerusalem, where he was a pupil at the Horev Elementary School and the Horev Yeshiva High School...

     (Party: Yisrael Beiteinu) - Member since June 8 In 2009, representative of the coalition.
  • MK Uri Ariel
    Uri Ariel
    Uri Yehuda Ariel is an Israeli politician who current serves as a member of the Knesset for the National Union.-Biography:Born in Afula, Ariel served in a combat unit called Palsar 7 in the Israel Defense Forces and retired as a major...

     (Faction: National Union
    National Union (Israel)
    The National Union is an alliance of nationalist political parties in Israel. In the 2009 elections the National Union consisted of four parties: Moledet, Hatikva, Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, and Tkuma.-Background:...

    ) - Member since June 8 In 2009, representative of the opposition.

Jury selection process

The process of electing the judges is regulated by the Rules of procedure of the Judicial Selection Committee, 1984.

This process includes:
  • Application for election by the applicant. Includes filled questionnaire; resume; recommendations; etc.
  • Verification of recommendations by the court's administration.
  • Publishing the candidate list in Reshumot
    Reshumot
    Reshumot is the gazette of record for the State of Israel, in which official records and laws are published. Originally called Iton Rishmi , its name was changed in the 1949 Transition Law to the current name - Reshumot.Reshumot files are published by the Governmental Printer and are distributed...

    , followed by a waiting period of at least 21 days in which every citizen may contact the committee before the hearing, with a reasoned explanation of opposition to a particular candidate.
  • Interview of the candidate by a subcommittee of the Judicial Selection Committee, containing at least three members (at least one judge, one attorney, and one MK).
  • Final decision by the Committee to confirm or reject a candidate.


The Committee's decision to appoint a judge in all courts (except the Supreme Court), is passed by a simple majority of members present at the meeting. Appointing Supreme Court judges requires, a majority of 7 of the 9 committee members, or two less than the number present at the meeting (6 of 8, 5 of 7, etc.).

Confidentiality applies legally to the committee's deliberations and they are not published for public review. This confidential appointment process is unique, because the selection process for every other public office is required by law to register and publish minutes of the committee's meetings.

Controversy of the committee's composition

During the existence of the Judicial Committee the influence of the Supreme Court committee members was almost absolute: although they constitute only a third of the committee, they are the only cohesive and stable group, while the other members change frequently.

Until the 1990s, the Committee judges ruled by an alliance forged with representatives of the Bar Association. During the Netanyahu
Netanyahu
Netanyahu is a surname, and may refer to the following members of the Netanyahu family in Israel.First generation:* Benzion Netanyahu , scholar of Jewish history, Zionist activist, professor emeritus of Cornell University, author of The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain and...

 government Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak is a Professor of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yale Law School, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law....

 forged an alliance with the Justice Minister Tzachi Hanegbi
Tzachi Hanegbi
Tzachi Hanegbi is a prominent Israeli lawmaker and security expert. Hanegbi was the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Knesset. Among the top cabinet positions he previously held are Minister of Justice, Minister of Internal Security and Minister of Intelligence and...

 to coordinate the appointments in exchange for Hanegbi's own public legitimacy.

This system - dubbed by some as the "friend brings a friend" cycle - has been criticized by jurists and politicians, mainly aligned with the political right
Left-Right politics
The left–right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a binary interpretation of complex questions...

 in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, who argued that the selection process does not properly represent public opinion, and that since the Supreme Court inevitably discusses politically disputed matters, the process impairs the principles of democracy. Some pushed for change in the process but were opposed by the fear that a change will eventually lead to politicization of the Judicial Selection, based on political views and affiliations rather than their professional and moral skills.

One of the suggestions, by Mordechai Heller, was to go through the appointments system reminiscent of the federal courts in the United States, and to some extent the method that was used in Israel before 1953: authorizing the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...

 to propose candidates, and appoint them by Knesset authority, after a public hearing process (this was suggested at the time when there were direct prime minister elections in Israel, according to which Heller viewed the prime minister's office and the Knesset as two independent authorities, a distinction that is now obsolete since the prime minister is no longer elected directly). He even raised the possibility of adding a professional committee to ensure that candidates meet the appropriate qualification level.

Prior to his appointment as Justice Minister, Professor Daniel Friedmann
Daniel Friedmann
Daniel Friedmann was the Minister of Justice of Israel from 2007 to 2009. A professor of law, he was appointed by PM Ehud Olmert. He was sworn in on February 7, 2007, succeeding Tzipi Livni. In 2009 he was succeeded by Ya'akov Ne'eman.-Early life:...

 wrote that it's crucial to change something in the composition of the committee. He proposed that instead of selecting all three judges to the committee from the Supreme Court, two shall be district court judges or retired district court judges. Some of the benefits would be dispersed authority (preventing a powerful positioning of a relatively small group of Supreme Court justices in driving the whole judicial system); more objective approach to candidates; and that the district judges will be better acquainted with the candidates for lower courts whom they have to appoint.

In contrast, the Israeli Democracy Institute
Israeli Democracy Institute
The Israeli Democracy Institute is non-profit organization in Israel, founded in 1991, which aims at forming policies and to initiate reforms in the different fields of the state and its institutions in order to apply laws, implement them and to strengthen the democracy values in Israel.-...

 supports leaving the status quo intact, and includes the existing system in its proposed Constitution without any changes. The Head of the Bar Association, Yuri Guy-Ron, also supports keeping the existing pattern. (Retired) Chief Justice, Aharon Barak - himself a controversial figure - strongly condemned the proposed changes in selecting judges. He argued that although the Israeli system is not free of problems, it still tops all the suggestions to improve it, and that on this matter it's better that other countries learn from Israel and not the opposite.

Several Knesset members tried at different times to change the legislation the committee structure, including David Tal and Michael Eitan
Michael Eitan
Michael Eitan is an Israeli politician, Minister of Improvement of Government Services and member of the Knesset for Likud. He served as Minister of Science & Technology between July 1997 and July 1998. Alongside Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Eitan is the joint longest-serving MK, and as such was...

, at the time chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice committee, but their proposals didn't gather enough support.

Daniel Friedmann
Daniel Friedmann
Daniel Friedmann was the Minister of Justice of Israel from 2007 to 2009. A professor of law, he was appointed by PM Ehud Olmert. He was sworn in on February 7, 2007, succeeding Tzipi Livni. In 2009 he was succeeded by Ya'akov Ne'eman.-Early life:...

 was appointed Justice Minister in February 2007. Critical of the judicial system before, and an outspoken opponent of the Supreme Court and the committee's selection process, he was appointed by, then Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....

 to shake up the judicial system. His opponents criticized his appointment as a political maneuver to influence the judicial system, specifically the case against Olmert's close friend and important ally, and Friedmann's predecessor as Justice Minister, Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1983 and 2009, and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.-Biography:...

. Friedmann criticized the court's handling of the Ramon affair in an article just days prior to his appointment; he later also criticized the guilty verdict on Ramon.

Friedmann proposed some fundamental changes to the committee, including the number of members and the way they are selected. He had some highly publicized encounters with Chief Justice Dorit Beinish and her predecessor Aharon Barak over his reform proposals and other related matters. Barak even said about some of Friedmann's proposals that they are like "holding a gun to the head of the Supreme Court". In the end, he succeeded in implementing some of his proposed changes, but the system's critics still charged that it wasn't nearly enough.

In June 2009, with the selection to the committee of the two right-wing MK's, Uri Ariel
Uri Ariel
Uri Yehuda Ariel is an Israeli politician who current serves as a member of the Knesset for the National Union.-Biography:Born in Afula, Ariel served in a combat unit called Palsar 7 in the Israel Defense Forces and retired as a major...

 (National Union
National Union (Israel)
The National Union is an alliance of nationalist political parties in Israel. In the 2009 elections the National Union consisted of four parties: Moledet, Hatikva, Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, and Tkuma.-Background:...

), and David Rotem
David Rotem
David Rotem is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.-Biography:Rotem grew up in Jerusalem, where he was a pupil at the Horev Elementary School and the Horev Yeshiva High School...

 (Yisrael Beiteinu), a conflict erupted between the various factions of the Knesset members. The first committee meeting brought about a fundamental change in the appointing process when it was ruled that candidates will need to undergo tests and a course adjustment, and will be evaluated by a psychologist to examine their mental suitability - against the fierce opposition of Chief Justice Dorit Beinish.‏‏
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