Minister of Justice Yariv Levin accused a judge in the Supreme Court of threatening him. According to reports, Levin shared this during a conversation with students from the "National Vision" organization, where he explained that the threat was related to the nomination process for the ombudsman for complaints against judges.
In the conversation, Levin described how, during his meeting with a Supreme Court judge, the issue of the appointment of the ombudsman for complaints against judges came up. According to Levin, the judge named a former Supreme Court judge and claimed that this was the person the judges wanted for the position. The judge further threatened that if Levin did not agree to their candidate, no ombudsman would be appointed, and the public would blame Levin for the lack of an ombudsman to handle complaints about judges.
Levin recalled: "A year and a half ago, I was invited to meet with one of the Supreme Court judges, who told me, 'I have a proposal for you. I suggest you surrender.'" Levin shared with the students, adding: "He told me, 'Look, we have three points of disagreement, and you have no cards to play, no choice. Therefore, it’s better for you to surrender in advance than to end up with the same result after suffering public and other damages.'"
Levin further stated that, following this conversation, he reached out to Rothman with a proposal to change the selection process for the ombudsman for complaints against judges. He said, "After a very tough struggle that took us more than a year, we passed a law and changed the method for selecting the ombudsman."