The war that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has waged with the Israeli Supreme Court preceded the October 2023 war on Gaza, as his power has long rested on his criminal corruption going unchallenged. Now, his Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, has vowed to make the Supreme Court evaporate, unless the members of the Judicial Selection Committee (JSC) cease their opposition to his ‘far right’ cabinet members, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Levin doesn’t have the votes on the JSC and, consequently, has refrained from making any nominations, leaving the 15-member Supreme Court with 4 seats vacant, with 5 more justices to retire by the end of the next Knesset. He told Ynet news:
“I insist that people who express a different worldview [than the current justices] enter the Supreme Court…. I say the following to the judges and to the opposition members: there are currently four vacant seats on the Supreme Court, and in the next term another five justices will leave. Altogether there will be nine vacant seats. I support reaching an agreement and making appointments that will diversify the court; if there is willingness [to do so], all the better. If there is no willingness, the court will gradually disappear on its own.”
What is the “different worldview”? Levin is pushing two “conservative” justices. One, Aviad Bakshi, is an illegal settler in the West Bank, officially in violation of Israeli law. The other, Raphael Bitton, is famous for arguing: “Israel must cast aside the legal approach that dictates that the security of the border areas must comply solely with the laws of war” and that international law is too restrictive for Israel’s purposes.
