Tomorrow, elections will be held at the Bar Association, which will affect the identity of the Chamber's representatives on the Judicial Selection Committee. For the time being, the leftist candidate, Adv. Amit Bahar, leads in the polls by a significant margin and has so far refrained from holding a high-profile confrontation with the candidate on the right, Attorney Efi Nave. The elections may affect the fate of the Judicial Selection Committee.
The council of the Bar Association chooses the representatives of the Chamber on the committee, and therefore a vote for the factions of the Bar is more important than a vote for the chairman. If the two representatives of the Chamber on the committee are identified with the right, it will be possible to abolish the Senority even without legislation. The reason: The appointment of a president to the Supreme Court from among the existing judges is done today using the senority method – the appointment of the veteran judges on the court, but the appointment itself is made by an ordinary majority of the committee members: five out of nine.
Leading in polls. Adv. Amit Bachar (Archive), Photo: Herzi Shapira
If the two representatives of the chamber are identified with the right, they will join two coalition ministers who are members of the committee, so that the coalition will have to appoint another representative in a month, alongside opposition member Karine Elharrar, in order to win five votes.
Therefore, the retiring attorney general of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Attorney Dan Yakir, called to refrain from voting for Amit Behar's list because it contains right-wing members. "Regarding two of the right-wing candidates on the list, it was said that their position on the 'legal reform' is 'complex,'" he explained, adding: "It turns out that they support the override clause, and one of the candidates even joined the letter reprimanding Avi Himi for his opposition to the regime coup does not reflect the position of the bureau."
Adv. Efi Nave (Archive), Photo: Yossi Zeliger
Yakir's announcement does hurt Behar, because without a large faction, even if he is eventually elected bureau chairman, he will find it difficult to control it. However, the Chairman of the State Prosecutor's Committee, Attorney Orit Korin, announced her support for Bachar together with her faction member, Attorney Yitzi Gordon, Chairman of the State Legal Association. The support helps Bachar but also strengthens Nave's campaign, because Bachar is "Liat Ben Ari's representative in the bureau." Naveh claims in his campaign that the coalition will not cooperate with Behar, which will lead to the removal of bureau members from the committee.
Israel Hayom has learned that Bachar has already prepared a petition to the High Court of Justice against the move.
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