Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday night nominated current acting State Attorney Amit Aisman for the permanent role.
Aisman was approved by a committee which is supposed to deal with such issues as well as by then justice minister Avi Nissenkorn back in November 2020.
However, from then until now, then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party had blocked the appointment from becoming permanent.
Only after a variety of legal fights was Aisman able to at least receive the role in an acting capacity.
But his term in an acting capacity was due to run out in July without receiving a permanent appointment.
The narrative was that Netanyahu did not want someone like Aisman, who was part of the prosecution establishment, but someone from the outside who he could count on to potentially give him a lenient plea deal in his public corruption trial, should the case go south for him.
In addition to potentially handling such issues later with Netanyahu, Aisman has been and will also be involved in decisions related to Shas leader Arye Deri, UTJ leader Ya’acov Litzman and other major issues.
Sa’ar said he warned Aisman of his plans to split the attorney-general’s job into two roles: a chief legal adviser and a chief prosecutor – once Attorney-General Avichai mandelblit’s term expires in February 2022.
It is unclear how this would impact Aisman at that point and if he would be grandfathered into the role of chief prosecutor or have to endure a new open competition bidding process.
There has been no permanent state attorney since December 2019 when Shai Nitzan stepped down, though Dan Eldad was briefly acting state attorney between March and May 2020 and Mandelblit filled the role until Aisman assumed the role in an interim capacity.
The selection committee was chaired by Mandelblit, while the other members included Civil Service Commission head Daniel
Hershkowitz, acting Justice Ministry Director-General Sigal Yakobi, attorney Rachel Torah representing the Israel Bar Association and Prof. Oren Gazal-Eyal, representing the academic community.
In November 2020 they praised Aisman’s role in serving as Haifa’s district attorney, his multiple acting deputy state attorney roles and decades of experience.
Further, they emphasized his leadership capacity to make necessary changes within the prosecutorial apparatus, including increasing public confidence.
The committee referenced a disciplinary hearing that Aisman conducted in 2018 relating to sexist comments he had made in 2014 and 2008. The comments led to an inquiry about whether he had committed sexual harassment.
However, the committee said that Aisman took responsibility for the past statements, which it referred to as being in the distant past, and that he said he had learned his lesson.
The decision was a blow to Deputy State Attorney Shlomo Lemberger who many thought might be Mandelblit’s first choice, because they served so closely together in recent years.
One name which was not on the final list was that of Deputy State Attorney Liat Ben Ari, who never submitted her candidacy despite expectations that she would be among the top picks.
Ben Ari is the lead lawyer against Netanyahu and was the lead lawyer in the Holyland corruption trial against former prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Despite her record of top cases, she said she could not be both state attorney and continue to lead the Netanyahu trial. There were expectations that the Likud Party would oppose her more than any other candidate.