Amit Bachar defeated Efi Naveh on Wednesday in the elections for the head of the Israel Bar Association after garnering about 70 percent of the votes. The anti-judicial reform candidate defeated his opponent, who supported some of its provisions. The official and accurate matches will be officially published at 18 p.m.
When the results became clear before they became official, Bachar said: "After a white night, I would like to thank you and tens of thousands of lawyers from across the Israeli spectrum without exception: secular and ultra-Orthodox, rightists and leftists, Jews and Arabs. You enlisted as one man to fight for the dignity of the profession and democracy."
Efi Naveh voted in the elections for head of the Israel Bar Association // Moshe Ben-Simhon
Efi Naveh, who had already come to terms with his loss in the morning, told Kan Reshet Bet: "The battle that is not in my best interest has turned into a left-right war, the professional agenda of the bureau has been ignored. Experience shows that in such battles, the right always loses. I didn't come from a political agenda, but from a professional one. I was a bureau chief who was considered one of the best."
Hobbes. Efi Nave (Archive), Photo: Jonathan Shaul
The Council of the National Bar Association, which appoints representatives of the Bar to the committee, also recorded a victory for the camp of those who oppose the reform, so that if the committee for the selection of judges is held in its current form, the camp that opposes the government's measures, namely the judges, the opposition, and the Bar Association, will have a majority on the committee. This majority will be sufficient to appoint a president to the Supreme Court, but not to appoint a new judge to this court, unlike lower courts to which this camp can appoint judges.
Hundreds of thousands demonstrated across the country against the legal reform // Tali Melamed
Explanation: The committee consists of nine representatives, three judges, two representatives of the Bar Association, two Knesset members (one of whom has already been determined to be an opposition representative) and two ministers. If Behar's camp holds power in the council, two representatives will be appointed to the committee who support the judges' positions, and together with the opposition representative to this camp there will be six members. In order to appoint a president to the Supreme Court, an ordinary majority, i.e., five, is required. The same applies to appointing judges to courts other than the Supreme Court. In order to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court, a majority of seven members is required, so the camp that opposes the reform will be required to act in some agreement with representatives of the coalition.
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