Israel can live without a technology and space minister. It can function without a water resources minister. It can even manage just fine without a minister for higher education. All these are positions that have been vacant for weeks.
But Israel needs a justice minister – one of the most important ministers in any democracy. The fact that it has been without one now since April 1 is nothing short of scandalous.
The High Court of Justice agrees, which is why on Sunday it gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until Tuesday to appoint a new justice minister, or it will step in and consider filling the position on its own.
“The justice minister has many functions,” High Court President Esther Hayut said during a discussion on a petition on the matter. “There is a governmental vacuum where there is no justice minister.”
The Justice Ministry position has remained vacant since the head of Blue and White Party Benny Gantz’s term as acting justice minister expired on April 1. Gantz took over this position temporarily after Avi Nissenkorn resigned at the end of 2020 to join a rival political party.
With Netanyahu currently on trial facing bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges, the justice minister is a particularly sensitive post, and one which the prime minister is reluctant to fill in the apparent hope that he may be able to delay an appointment long enough for him to form a new government and give the post to one of his loyalists.
There is no apparent reason other than personal interest to explain Netanyahu’s stubborn refusal to fill this critical position.
The coalition agreement signed between Netanyahu and Gantz last year mandated that the justice minister would come from the Blue and White Party. Gantz said repeatedly that controlling the Justice Ministry in order to protect the country’s judiciary was one of the central reasons he was willing to go back on campaign promises and form a government with Netanyahu.
The justice minister fulfills critical roles, and the failure to appoint someone in this post adversely impacts both judicial and legislative processes in the country.
For instance, it is the justice minister – as head of the ministerial committee for legislation – who must sign off on any government-backed bill to be brought to the Knesset. It is the justice minister who convenes the judicial selection committee to nominate judges; who will appoint the next state attorney – a position that has been vacant since December; and who signs off on extradition orders and pardons for inmates.
The justice minister is also a member of the security cabinet and sits on the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) oversight committee.
Most immediately, it is the justice minister who needs to sign papers exempting unvaccinated prisoners from coming to court because of the coronavirus, allowing them to attend hearings via Zoom instead. Without his signature, these prisoners will need to show up in court, potentially creating a significant public health issue.
As High Court Justice Uzi Vogelman said Sunday, “Appointing ministers is not a political issue – it is an overwhelmingly constitutional and governance issue.”
On April 1, before Gantz’s temporary stint as justice minister lapsed, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit wrote a letter saying that leaving the post open would create a “very unusual and politically dire situation” that would “badly harm the work of the Justice Ministry and the government’s functionality.”
Nearly a month later, both the work of the Justice Ministry and the functionality of the government have indeed been hurt. It is time to put an end to this situation – and, if Netanyahu is unwilling to appoint someone to fill this critical post, for the court to do so itself.
To those who will then claim that this would be yet another example of court overreach, we answer that if the government and the prime minister would just do their jobs, the court would not have to step in.
This is not a case of the court appropriating powers not its own, but rather the court filing a vacuum left by the government’s dysfunctional position. The country need not be held hostage while Netanyahu engages in delaying tactics aimed at being able to appoint a justice minister to his liking.