Yoram Sheftel, a leading Israeli lawyer, has slammed the choice of two of three potential Supreme Court nominees as candidates of the Left. He says the move will effectively change Israel from being a Jewish State into a state of all its citizens. Advocate Sheftel has been involved in many prominent Israeli court cases, often defending Land of Israel activists against the Israeli justice system, police and the IDF. Sheftel made the statement in an op-ed in Friday’s Makor Rishon newspaper.

The two candidates opposed by Sheftel are Tel Aviv District Judge Uzi Fogelman and Beersheba District Court Judge Yoseph Elon. The controversial choices have been a cause for surprise because the national camp recently won a majority on the Judicial Selection Committee. Currently the selections have been frozen as the Committee has failed to reach a compromise with Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch refusing to accept the single rightwing candidate. Many have blamed Justice Minister Yacov Neeman for caving in to Beinisch on the appointments.

The Judicial Selection Committee is scheduled to reconvene on Sunday in another attempt to choose the new Supreme Court justices after the committee failed to do so on Friday.