The Supreme Court convened on Tuesday morning to hear petitions concerning the appointment procedure of the head of the ISA.
Among the most hotly contested parts of the process is the intention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appoint the Major General David Zini to the position despite objections from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The Attorney General has claimed that since the ISA is involved in the Qatar-Gate investigation, any attempt by the Prime Minister to involve himself in the affairs of the ISA constitutes a conflict of interest and and illegitimate interference in the investigation.
The panel of judges who will hear the petitions are Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Yitzhak Amit, and Justices Alex Stein and Gila Canfy-Steinitz. The hearing will be broadcast live on the websites of the Supreme Court, Israel's Judicial branch, and on the YouTube channel of the Judicial branch spokesman.
While Supreme Court President Amit delivered his opening remarks, audience members began shouting. One woman said: "You are discussing matters of terrorists." She was applauded - and escorted out by the court marshals. Justice Amit said: "The audience is not a party to the proceedings. We will now go to another room. We have just witnessed two things - an outburst from the audience and a round of applause. As soon as that happens - we will close the discussion. Now we will move on to the next room."
Attorney Michael Ravello asked Amit to allow the Secretary of the Cabinet Yossi Fox to participate in the closed-door hearing: "He has all the clearance," he said. "The answer is no, and I think you know it," Amit replied.
The first petition was filed by twenty members of bereaved families and relatives of hostages. They sought to annul the opinion of the Attorney General on the grounds that there was an overriding national security need to appoint a permanent head of the Shin Bet urgently.
Netanyahu wrote that the Attorney General's position that a minister would appoint a head of the Shin Bet in his stead is contrary to the law. "This is in fact a proposal to change the legal situation and to strip the Prime Minister of his powers", the Prime Minister argued. "This is a most dangerous precedent and the creation of a hybrid creature of a Prime Minister who, on the one hand, remains responsible for the Shin Bet, but a minister who is not responsible for the Shin Bet is the one who will exercise the discretion as to appointments."
The other petition, which is contrary to the first, was filed last week by former senior officials of the Ministry of Defense, relatives of those who were murdered or kidnapped on 7 October, and two nonprofit associations.