Esther Hayut
Esther HayutPhoto by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut on Tuesday afternoon approved a hearing on several petitions against the imposition of the task of forming the government on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Gantz-Netanyahu unity coalition agreement.

The petition hearing will be split into two days. On Sunday, the Supreme Court will hear petitions against the imposition of the task of forming the government on an MK who is under indictment. On Monday, the parties' arguments regarding the coalition agreement between the Likud faction and the Blue and White faction will be heard.

Eleven judges from the Supreme Court will sit on the panel, President Esther Hayut, Vice President Hanan Meltzer, Justice Neil Hendel, Justice Uzi Fogelman, Justice Yitzhak Amit, Justice Noam Solberg, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez, Justice Manny Mazuz, Justice Anat Baron, Justice George Kara, and Justice David Mintz.

Justice Hayut stated that "for the sake of efficiency of the hearing, without expressing an opinion on the merits of the matter and without discounting the objections of the respondents 2 and 6 of HCJ 2592/20, I hereby issue a preliminary order as requested in all the petitions. To this end, the preliminary responses submitted by the respondents will at this time be considered as affidavits of statements and arguments of argument."

As part of the decision, Hayut noted, "In accordance with the authority vested in the court under section 70 (b) of the Law of the Court [Integrated Version], 1984, we are considering the possibility of direct transmission of the hearing on these petitions. To the extent that any party to the petitions has reservations about the said broadcast, it must notify us by Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 12:00.