The Knesset Home Committee voted on Tuesday to appoint Likud MK Ofir Katz as the Knesset’s representative on the committee responsible for electing a watchdog for the judicial system, officially known as the Ombudsman of the Israeli Judiciary.
The ombudsman is responsible for hearing complaints against all judges with statutory powers, including judges in criminal courts, transportation courts, family courts, and also religious courts, and can initiate disciplinary proceedings against them, the harshest of which is a recommendation to remove a judge from his or her position.
Prior watchdogs were a joint appointment by the Justice Minister and Supreme Court Chief Justice. The former watchdog, former high court judge Uri Shoham, finished his tenure in May 2024, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin has since refused to cooperate with interim chief justice Uzi Fogelman and current chief justice Yizhak Amit to appoint a new one.
The coalition resumed legislation of a new appointment method soon after Amit was appointed as permanent Chief Justice in January, despite efforts by Levin to block it. The coalition on March 4 passed the law, which de-facto gives it control of the next appointee. The coalition’s justification for changing the law was that the Chief Justice should not have a say in appointing the person who could treat complaints against the chief justice himself.
According to the law, the new ombudsman will be appointed by a committee comprised of the justice minister; the labor minister; two judges – one appointed by the high court bench, and the other appointed by the chief justices of Israel’s regional courts; a retired religious judge appointed by the two chief rabbis; the National Public Defender; and a Member of Knesset.
Majority choice
The current coalition will enjoy a 4-3 majority, since, in addition to the two ministers, it now used majority in the Knesset to appoint Katz, and the two chief rabbis are politically associated with the haredi parties, who are part of the governing coalition.
A government-appointed watchdog could serve as a way to apply pressure on Chief Justice Amit. Levin and a number of other government ministers and MKs have announced that they do not recognize Amit’s appointment, due to what they claimed were insufficient treatment of complaints that surfaced in the weeks prior to his appointment.
The complaints mainly had to do with claims that he had ruled in cases in which he had a conflict-of-interest. The police looked into the claims and decided that they did not warrant an investigation. Amit issued detailed explanations to each complaint, including in front of the Judicial Selection Committee, before his appointment was approved.
