Shaked ‘took advice’ from far-right Ben Gvir on judicial appointments
“There was a direct line for advice between us [Ben Gvir and Shaked] regarding the appointment of judges and other positions in the legal system,” Ben Gvir said at the conference.
By JEREMY SHARONUnited Right leader Ayelet Shaked(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Former justice minister and senior Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked reportedly took advice from Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir when considering judicial appointments.Ben-Gvir, who is an attorney, disclosed that Shaked had approached him to discuss possible appointments to the courts at a conference on Sunday, recordings of which were broadcast by Channel 12 Monday night.“There was a direct line for advice between us [Ben-Gvir and Shaked] regarding the appointment of judges and other positions in the legal system,” he said at the conference.If members of the legal establishment opposed one of her selected appointments, Shaked would concede to their demands, Ben-Gvir said.Shaked has not responded directly to the report, although sources close to her said in response to a similar story in The Marker on Sunday: “Shaked took advice from a diverse and large group of people in the legal field… and heard from a different voices across the political spectrum... Every candidate was meticulously evaluated in the framework of the minister’s efforts to vary the legal system.”Blue and White said in response: “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s loss of control has reached dangerous heights when his new ally Itamar Ben-Gvir, who worships the murderer [Baruch] Goldstein, is exposed as someone who will appoint judges if he is elected.”Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron in 1994. Ben-Gvir has a picture of Goldstein hanging on the wall of his living room in his Hebron home.Otzma Yehudit is the far-right successor to the Kahanist Kach party, which advocated for racial segregation in Israel. Otzma Yehudit advocates for noncoercive population transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank.
