Despite Lapid's call: Labor will present its own candidate for the Judicial Selection Committee - voila! news

Video: Controversy in the opposition ahead of the elections for the Judicial Selection Conference (Roni Knafo)

The Labor Party announced on Monday that it would nominate MK Efrat Reitan as the opposition candidate for the Judicial Selection Committee, despite calls by opposition leader Yair Lapid to unite around his party member Karin Elharrar. The elections are scheduled to take place in the Knesset plenum on June 14.

"I am submitting my candidacy to the Judicial Selection Committee," Reiten said at the start of the faction meeting. "This is based on the experience I gained in the committee in the previous government, the parallels and seniority, and the ability to conduct a respectful dialogue with parties who do not see eye to eye with worldviews, and yet reach broad agreements."

Her party chairwoman, Merav Michaeli, supported her. "The choice must be based on the ability to be elected and on a candidate with the appropriate experience and tools in order to bring about the result required by the committee because we will maintain what the camp has been taking to the streets for for 20 weeks straight. Efrat is the most suitable candidate for the job. The opposition should choose one candidate and not split votes, so now is the time to put aside disagreements, calling on Lapid and Gantz to reach an agreement on one candidate."

Minutes earlier, Lapid had urged the other opposition factions not to present other candidates. "This is a tremendous achievement of the protest and the opposition, and it seems that a committee will be elected to select judges with an opposition representative," he said. "My role as opposition leader is to lead the process, I am confident that we will lead the process, because the second option is a split that will lead to the election of two coalition representatives, and that is a disaster for Israeli democracy."

Lapid's calls were not heeded. Reitan and Michaeli at a meeting of the Labor faction, today (Photo: Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel)

Benny Gantz, chairman of the state camp, said in the faction that negotiations over the identity of the candidate should take place outside the media, and that the most important thing is that the coalition nominate one candidate according to custom. He warned that if it presented two candidates, his party would withdraw from the talks at the president's residence.

"I think that no parliamentary or other organization conducts in the media except in an orderly manner. Unfortunately, this has not been done," he said. "I intend to focus on getting the committee underway properly and then we will decide with the members how we proceed with a candidate. We will decide later, but first of all it is important to have a committee."

Asked whether it would be appropriate for him to support Yesh Atid's position since it is the largest party, Gantz replied: "There have been many cases in the past of small factions that put forward a representative on behalf of the opposition. There is no binding practice of a large or small faction. Still, I won't get media announcements saying, 'Straight up and let's start running.' The state camp is a faction that is talked to and coordinated with. On the merits, Karin is an excellent candidate, Efrat is excellent and we will make a decision later."

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Lapid (Photo: Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel)

The elections of Knesset representatives to the committee will take place against the background of the efforts to negotiate and compromise the President's House on the legal revolution. The coalition agreed to the opposition's demand to hold elections for the committee on the current date and composition as a condition for continuing the talks, but the opposition also demands that the election results maintain the status quo and the practice according to which the Knesset elects a coalition representative and an opposition representative as members of the committee.

However, this is a non-binding practice, which has already been violated in previous conferences. In addition, elections to the committee for the selection of judges in the Knesset plenum are secret. Splitting the opposition nominations is expected to make it easier for the coalition to maneuver and lead to the election of two representatives on its behalf or the selection of a candidate more comfortable than the opposition, who will cooperate with Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the judges he wants to appoint.

The opposition threatened that if an opposition MK was not elected to serve on the committee, they would withdraw from the talks at the president's residence. In the meantime, the coalition does not intend to violate this practice so as not to lead to an explosion in attempts to reach agreement on parts of the legal reform.

Candidates must submit their candidacy one week before the election, as early as next week. Lapid announced earlier this month that Elharrar, a member of the constitutional committee and a member of the dialogue team at the president's residence, was the opposition's candidate. However, he did not coordinate this with Gantz, who is now considering whether to nominate another candidate for his party, MK Hili Tropper and MK Pnina Tamano Shata.

Opposition sources believe that the Likud will prefer Gantz's candidate over Lapid's more belligerent candidate, and the coalition may cooperate with him.

Levin will have to reach an agreement with the president of the Supreme Court

The Judicial Selection Committee, in its current composition, consists of nine members – the Minister of Justice and another minister from the government, two Knesset members, the President of the Supreme Court and two other Supreme Court justices, and two representatives of the Bar Association. To elect a Supreme Court justice, the support of seven of the nine members of the commission is required.

So even if the coalition elects two of its representatives to the committee, and even if a convenient opposition candidate is elected or less, Levin will have to reach agreements with the president of the Supreme Court or one of the judges who are members of the committee, as well as with the Bar Association, which will choose its chairman days after the elections of Knesset representatives.

Former Bureau Chairman Efi Naveh, who was convicted of a criminal offense and is trying to return to his seat, is considered the coalition's preferred candidate against the leading candidate, Adv. Amit Bahar, one of the leaders of the robes protest against Levin's legal revolution.

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• Yair Lapid
• Karin Elharar
• Benny Gantz
• Judicial Selection Committee