Four New Israeli Supreme Court Justices: Righting A Leftward Tilt?
AFSI welcomes the announcement earlier this week of four new appointments to Israel’s Supreme Court, who will replace justices due to retire in the coming year. The four are:
– Jerusalem District Court Judge David Mintz
– Haifa District Court President Yosef Elron
– Haifa District Court Judge Yael Willner
– Tel Aviv District Court Judge George Karra.
The first three are considered conservative-leaning. David Mintz is a resident of Dolev (in the Binyamin region of the Shomron); he and Yael Willner are Orthodox Jews; and George Karra is a Christian Arab.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked praised the new appointments as “reflecting the human and legal diversity so needed in our society, which was lacking in our highest court.”
The judges being replaced are Justices Miriam Naor, Elyakim Rubinstein, Salim Jubran and Zvi Zilbertal.
It is anticipated that the new makeup of the Supreme Court will be more considerate of conservative positions, including on issues of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and less interventionist on contentious Knesset decisions.
Israel’s left and opposition politicians fear that shifting the court’s ideological makeup to the right will threaten Israeli democracy, whereas for the Israeli right, the Supreme Court represents the old left-leaning political elite. Historically, the court has actively leaned left, and has been accused of making decisions based on politics, frustrating and subverting the legal authority of the Knesset.
Arutz Sheva: Four new judges appointed to Supreme Court
JPost: Israeli Right Wins Historic Fight Over Supreme Court Justices