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Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Monday called on all opposition parties to support Yesh Atid's candidate, MK Karine Elharrar, in the elections of Knesset representatives to the Judicial Selection Committee, and not to field other opposition candidates. This is against the background of the debate in the state camp whether to put another candidate on behalf of the party, in addition to Elharar, in the elections to be held in the Knesset plenum on June 14.
"The opposition cannot destroy itself again," Lapid wrote on Twitter. "I call on members of the opposition not to split the votes and to stand behind Karine Elharrar as our representative on the Judicial Selection Committee. It is inconceivable that we would give Levin and Rothman such a gift and split the vote."
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.
Yair Lapid at a meeting of the Yesh Atid faction, May 15, 2023 (Photo: Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel)
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 the chairman of the state camp, Benny Gantz, who is now considering whether to put forward another candidate from his party - MK Hili Tropper and MK Pnina Tamano Shata.
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Benny Gantz at a meeting of the State Camp faction, May 15, 2023 (Photo: Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel)
Opposition sources believe that the Likud will prefer Gantz's candidate, the man of dialogue and agreement, over Lapid's more belligerent candidate, and the coalition may cooperate with him. In light of the split between Yesh Atid and the State Camp, it is not inconceivable that one of the MKs of the Labor Party – Efrat Reitan or Gilad Kariv – will also submit their candidacy to the committee.
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
