A-G to High Court: Gov't must appoint justice minister within days
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit updated the High Court of Justice on Sunday that the government must appoint a new permanent justice minister within days.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBAVICHAI MANDELBLIT(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The High Court of Justice on Sunday hinted that it might appoint a permanent justice minister on Tuesday if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to do so.Earlier on Sunday, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit updated the High Court concerning his view that the government must appoint a new permanent justice minister within days.Mandelblit appeared to waver between whether the High Court should order the appointment of a justice minister already on Tuesday or whether it could wait until next Sunday as requested by Netanyahu.One scenario which the attorney-general ruled out entirely was appointing a temporary justice minister.Netanyahu did not commit to appointing a justice minister by Tuesday, but did commit to moving up the government’s meeting about the issue from next week to this Tuesday.To maintain pressure, the High Court ordered the government to update it by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz issued a statement that he would demand to be appointed permanent justice minister on Tuesday.Further, the government committed to holding a meeting to discuss filling other open ministerial posts next Sunday.It was unclear if that would be the last day before the High Court steps in to appoint those ministers as well or whether the government might be able to buy some more time.Last Thursday, the High Court issued an interim order demanding that the government respond by Sunday at 2 p.m. regarding its failure to appoint a justice minister.
To some extent, the ruling seemed to endorse Mandelblit’s view that Netanyahu could postpone the issue, but only until May 2.The post has been empty since the start of April when Gantz’s three-month term as acting justice minister expired.Since then Netanyahu has prevented the appointment of a replacement.Connected to the appointment of a justice minister was the issue related to prisoners’ health.Mandelblit clarified earlier Sunday that attempts by the government to reduce the health risk of bringing unvaccinated prisoners to court were positive, but insufficient.Without a justice minister, who has the power to exempt prisoners from coming to court hearings in favor of zoom due to the coronavirus, many unvaccinated prisoners would have to come to court for every hearing without measures being in place to prevent significant infection events between them and the general public.High Court President Esther Hayut, Justice Neal Hendel and Justice Uzi Vogelman were so upset by the idea that the government was abandoning the health of the general public and that of the prisoners in the court’s space, that they initially demanded a resolution by Thursday afternoon.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.”Last Thursday afternoon, Gantz jumped on the High Court’s comments and demanded that the cabinet be immediately convened to appoint a justice minister.Initially, Mandelblit had appeared to take the side of the petitioner, the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel, criticizing the prime minister for delaying the appointment and causing major gaps in governance which require a justice minister.However, Mandelblit also said that given that Netanyahu was only asking for a two-week delay, the High Court should likely grant the prime minister’s request.Implied in Mandelblit’s Monday legal brief to the High Court was that if Netanyahu continued to delay the justice minister’s appointment, he would likely support a court-ordered appointment.Netanyahu has wanted to prevent Gantz from appointing a minister allied with Blue and White. At the same time, he has been able to argue that since the government is in transition it was logical to wait for the new government to take office.
