Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin
Environmental Protection Minister Zeev ElkinFlash 90

Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) congratulated Justice Minister Shaked on the appointment of four new judges to the Supreme Court, in a comment on Friday morning.

“I commend her over the appointments. We’re talking about professional judges who represent different approaches and different populations.”

“At the same time,” he noted, “to think that the appointments will drastically change the face of the Supreme Court is not realistic,” he said.

While he said that “the appointments are important for a measure of public trust in the Supreme Court,” he asserted that “we need to change the method of [appointing Chief Justices according to] seniority and the method of appointing the judges.”

“India is the only country where they have a method of appointing judges like ours.”

“There are no countries in the world in which the Supreme Court can strike down laws and wield such power on the one hand, while on the other hand the power of elected representatives is so limited in the realm of appointing judges,” he explained. “For example, in the US, the President appoints the judges,” who are then vetted by Congress.

In Israel, there are nine members on the Judicial Selection Committee, including the head of the Supreme Court and two serving Supreme Court Justices, two members of the Bar Association, who generally do what the judges suggest, giving them a majority, the Justice Minister, a Cabinet Minister and two MK's. There have been many suggestions through the years for changing the makeup of the committee to give more representation to the legislature.