High Court to Netanyahu, gov't: 30 days to respond on appointments, PM powers
The decision means that Netanyahu would be responding close to the December 23 deadline for passing the budget.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBWILL NETANYAHU continue to keep his ministers in the shadows?(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government 30 days to explain why they are not bound by Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s conflicts of interest arrangement and why major state appointments should not be made without delay.The interim conditional order means that Netanyahu would be responding close to the December 23 deadline for passing the budget, by which time it may become clearer whether the country is going to a new round of elections..If there is a new round of elections, the High Court might back off pressuring the government to make appointments and for Netanyahu to accept limits on his involvement in those issues, given that transitional-election season governments usually avoid major decisions.However, if there are no new elections, the decision may be the High Court signaling that it will set a December or January deadline for the appointment of a new state attorney, police chief, Israel Prison Service chief and a variety of ministry director-generals.The decision follows Netanyahu agreeing to stay out of many of the law enforcement appointment issues which Mandelblit said he was barred from weighing in on during his upcoming public corruption trial, but his refusal to agree to all of Mandelblit’s conditions.Disputed areas include Mandelblit’s view that Netanyahu cannot be involved in appointments of High Court or Jerusalem District Court judges or legislation which could impact his trial.The phrasing of the High Court’s order and recent hearings have seemed to suggest it is leaning toward Mandelblit’s view on these disputed issues, but undoubtedly the justices would be happier if the sides reach a negotiated resolution without it having to weigh in.Additional parts of the court order required Mandelblit to address Netanyahu’s objections on issues in dispute.Moreover, both Netanyahu and Mandelblit must address whether the conflicts' arrangement should apply to close ministerial allies of the prime minister, such as Public Security Minister Amir Ohana.The NGO petitioner, the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel, believes that ministers close to Netanyahu should also be kept out of the appointments process, but Mandelblit has not gone that far to date.
The High Court heard initial arguments on whether it had jurisdiction to even get into the substantive legal disagreements on November 12.At that hearing, while Netanyahu lawyers Michael Ravilo and Yossi Cohen asked the High Court to stay out of the issue or only intervene in a narrow way, High Court President Esther Hayut responded, “Now there is a new reality. On the table is the definitive legal opinion of the Attorney-General. Some of it you agreed on, and some of it you didn’t. You want to go back to the stage of negotiations, but that is already over.”
