By Pesach Benson • June 7, 2026
Jerusalem, 7 June, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sunday unanimously ordered Justice Minister Yariv Levin to cooperate with Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit on judicial appointments, rejecting Levin’s claims that Amit’s appointment was invalid and sharply criticizing the minister’s conduct.
The ruling by the three-justice panel requires Levin to work jointly with Amit in exercising powers that, under Israeli law, require the participation of both officials. These include appointing court presidents and deputy presidents, assigning associate judges, appointing the Supreme Court registrar, and selecting judges or retired judges to serve on parole committees.
In a strongly worded decision, Justices Ofer Grosskopf, Alex Stein, and Yechiel Kasher dismissed Levin’s refusal to recognize Amit’s authority as Supreme Court president.
“Judge Yitzhak Amit is the President of the Supreme Court from the day he was sworn in until the end of his term. Whoever seeks to deny this seeks to deny reality,” the justices wrote.
“Anyone who believes that at the current time, Mr. Isaac Herzog is not the President of the State, MK Benjamin Netanyahu is not the Prime Minister, and MK Amir Ohana is not the Speaker of the Knesset is equally guilty. Therefore, the main argument for which the Minister of Justice refuses to cooperate with President Amit is an idle argument,” the ruling added.
The court ordered Levin to take the necessary steps to advance the delayed appointments “as soon as possible” and directed him to pay NIS 30,000 shekels ($10,200) in legal costs to the petitioners.
The case stemmed from a petition alleging that Levin had refused to cooperate with Amit because he disputed the legitimacy of Amit’s appointment. The court noted that Amit was lawfully elected by the Judicial Selection Committee on January 26, 2025, and began serving as Supreme Court president after taking his oath of office before the president on February 13, 2025.
According to the ruling, Levin’s objections were based on procedural steps that he himself declined to complete, including signing Amit’s appointment letter and publishing a notice of the appointment in the government gazette.
The justices said Levin had repeatedly attempted to block Amit’s appointment, first by refusing for an extended period to convene the Judicial Selection Committee and later by declining to participate in the process after Amit was elected.
“The entirety of the minister’s actions in relation to the appointment of Justice Amit to the position of President of the Supreme Court can be seen in only one way: as repeated attempts on his part to thwart the appointment, and after it was completed, as attempts to harm the legitimacy of the appointment,” the ruling stated.
The court emphasized that the prolonged delays in judicial appointments have contributed to a severe shortage of judges throughout the court system, harming the quality and efficiency of legal services and law enforcement. The problem has been exacerbated by a sharp increase in court proceedings since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The ruling follows a separate High Court decision issued last week ordering Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill vacant district court positions, particularly in Be’er Sheva and Haifa.
Levin denounced Sunday’s decision, calling it unlawful.
“This is a decision that is illegal on its face, in which the judiciary takes over the committee for selecting judges, in explicit violation of the provisions of the law,” he said.
Under Israeli law, the Justice Minister chairs the Judicial Selection Committee and is responsible for convening it when judicial vacancies arise. According to the Attorney-General’s Office, roughly 44 judicial positions are currently vacant, with another 21 Expected to open by the end of the year, bringing the total to around 65 — excluding new positions created under recent budgets. Without appointments, cases accumulate, hearings are delayed, and litigants wait longer for justice.
Levin is the architect of the government’s controversial judicial overhaul agenda. It includes changing the way judges are appointed, giving the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, restricting the ability of judges to apply the legal principle of “reasonableness,” and changing the way legal advisers are appointed to government ministries. The government is also advancing legislation to split the Attorney General’s responsibilities into three different roles.
Supporters of the legal overhaul say they want to end years of judicial overreach, while opponents describe the proposals as anti-democratic.
