Nine judges out of the twelve whose names Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced on Sunday night as candidates for the position of Supreme Court President contacted the Secretariat of the Judicial Selection Committee with a request to remove their names from the nomination.
In an unusual move, Levin nominated all the judges for the presidency after he was ordered to present his candidates by Sunday at midnight.
"We are in the midst of a sovereignty war, and we must not engage in such a controversial appointment procedure at this time," he wrote.
"By decree, they forced [my] preoccupation with this issue, precisely these days. All this, thinking that they could force the appointment of their [presidential candidate] through a procedure tainted by an acute conflict of interest."
Calls for the public to send objections
Levin stated in his announcement that the public has the right to send a written objection to the appointment of each of them, and the dedicated email address for this has already been circulated on social media by the supporters of the minister's move.
Levin added that he is publishing the list only after the Supreme Court, in his opinion, forfeited its powers [to do so].
Levin obeyed the High Court's ruling, but at the same time, he "scolded" the court and put all the judges in office, thereby achieving his goal of breaking the seniority system, which states that the most senior judge is the one who is appointed to be the president of the Supreme Court.
He has already achieved this goal by nominating Yosef Elron for the presidency instead of Yitzhak Amit, who is supposed to be president according to the system.