Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed overhaul of the judiciary gained ground on Wednesday with the election of one of their advocates to a post with a degree of clout over a key panel for selecting judges.
Former prosecutor Amit Becher was voted chairman of the Israel Bar Association after an unusually public feud with a candidate endorsed by members of the country’s nationalist-religious camp, including in Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Among the reforms, which have sparked months of unprecedented street protests over perceived threats to Israeli democracy, would be an expansion of the Judicial Appointments Committee, spelling more sway for the coalition.
The panel currently comprises nine members, two of them lawyers under the Bar chairman’s purview. The others are Supreme Court justices, cabinet ministers and parliamentarians, a mix meant to encourage a measure of give-and-take on bench picks.
“It’s clear the coalition tried to take over the committee,” Becher told Tel Aviv 103 FM radio. “That’s now been halted.”
His rival, Efraim (Efi) Nave, denied being the government’s “proxy”. Ayelet Shaked, a one-time justice minister who championed limits to Supreme Court powers like those sought by Netanyahu, deemed Nave a conservative ally.
Israelis on both sides of the divide saw the 77,201-member Bar as their latest battleground. With a high turnout of accredited lawyers, many of whom stood for hours in lines to vote on Tuesday, polling stations were kept open overtime.
Becher took 73% of ballots and Nave 19%, the Bar said.
“I don’t consider myself so important that people who never voted in the Bar suddenly had nothing more important to do than vote against me. No – they came to vote against the reforms,” Nave – who has also been dogged by personal scandals – told Army Radio.
The Judicial Appointments Committee needs to address a bench backlog, including in the Supreme Court, two of whose 15 justices retire in the coming months. But when the panel might convene – a government decision – remains unclear.
The coalition’s bill to expand it was suspended along with other reforms in March when Netanyahu entered compromise talks with the opposition. Declaring them fruitless on Sunday, Netanyahu said he would resume some legislation.
Work on that scheduled for Wednesday was postponed, however, following a Palestinian attack that killed four Israelis.
The coalition says the overhaul aims to balance out branches of government. Critics fear a bid by Netanyahu to curb court independence even as he argues his innocence in a corruption case against him.