Israel's Judicial Appointments Committee last night selected four new judges to sit on the 15-member Supreme Court - David Mintz, Yael Willner, Yosef Elron and George Kara. The new appointees will replace outgoing Supreme Court president Miriam Naor as well as justices Elyakim Rubinstein, Salim Joubran and Zvi Zilbertal - all due to retire in the coming months.
The new Supreme Court line-up will reflect a distinctly right-wing shift with three of the four new appointees reportedly on the preferred list of Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked from the Habayit Heyehudi party. She reportedly backed Mintz, a Jerusalem District Court judge who lives in a West Bank settlement, Willner, who is Orthodox and serves as a Haifa District Court judge and Kara, a Christian Arab judge serving on the Tel Aviv District Court. Elron, Haifa District Court president, was backed by Minister of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu).
The nine-member committee that chose the new justices comprises Shaked, Kahlon, two MKs from the governing coalition, Nurit Koren (Likud) and Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu), two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, and three Supreme Court judges.
Shaked praised the selection as providing a more accurate reflection of Israeli society.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 23, 2017
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