Difficulties in the process of appointing MK Jida Rinawi Zoabi (Meretz) to the Israeli Consulate in Shanghai.
A source close to the Civil Service Commission Appointments Committee recently said in a closed conversation that Lapid's intention to appoint Zoabi to the important position is causing problems.
This is what Israel today learned.
According to him, it is difficult to appoint a senior diplomat to the post, who objects to the state anthem and its basic values.
The insider said that against this background, the committee may not approve the appointment.
He stressed that this was a professional defect in functioning and not a reference to her political positions.
Lapid announced his intention to appoint Zoabi two and a half months ago.
In Israel today, it was revealed that the procedure is progressing lazily and probably not by chance: only two months after the announcement, Lapid forwarded to the Civil Service Commission the request to appoint Zoabi.
The request was transferred only after another request by Israel Today to the Lapid bureau.
The Lapid bureau insists that the length of the appointment is due solely to bureaucracy and that Lapid never withdrew his intention to appoint Zoabi.
Government officials, however, estimated that the dragging of the feet was intentional, after realizing to Torch that the appointment might fail.
MK Zoabi and Minister Lapid, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
As you may recall, Lapid reached a deal with Zoabi, after it voted against the draft law, which has meanwhile already been passed in the Knesset.
The appointment, which was also made before MK Silman retired from the coalition, is expected to be legally challenging.
More than 20 years ago, the High Court criticized the intention of the then Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to appoint the then MK, Yossi Katz, as Israel's ambassador to Germany, as part of a political deal.
Since Zoabi's appointment was made at the expense of the quota of political appointments to which the foreign minister is entitled, her candidacy does not require the approval of the ministry's appointments committee.
However, a committee headed by the Civil Service Commissioner, Rabbi Daniel Hershkovitz, will examine, by law, Zoabi's professional suitability to serve as the second representative of Israel's importance in China.
The Movement for the Quality of Government also opposed the appointment of Zoabi and defined it as political and not businesslike.
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