Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee has appointed 26 judges and senior registrars, marking the second round of appointments this week and bringing the total number of judicial officials selected during the current term to 290, according to figures cited by Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
The latest selections include one judge for the Haifa Family Court, eight Magistrate’s Court judges for the Southern District — including one for Eilat — and 17 senior registrars for courts across the North, Haifa, Central, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the South. The appointments follow Sunday’s selection of 68 judicial officials, the committee’s first broad round after roughly a year and a half of delay, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.
Supreme Court President Isaac Amit called the appointments “significant news for the court system and the public as a whole,” emphasizing the need to strengthen the judiciary’s personnel amid the system’s workload and operational challenges. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who chairs the committee, described the process as “a real revolution in judicial appointments,” saying it had allowed the promotion of candidates previously blocked for nonprofessional reasons and produced unprecedented diversity on the bench. Levin’s office said the 290 appointments represent more than 30% of Israel’s judges.
The appointments come as the High Court of Justice hears arguments against a law that would change the composition and voting rules of the Judicial Selection Committee. An expanded bench of all 11 sitting Supreme Court justices heard six consolidated petitions seeking to strike down the amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary and the Courts Law, which was passed by the Knesset in March 2025 and is due to take effect only in the next Knesset. The court has already issued a conditional order, shifting the burden to the Knesset and government to justify the law.
Under the previous arrangement, the nine-member committee included three Supreme Court justices, two Israel Bar Association representatives, two ministers, including the justice minister, and two MKs. The new law removes the Bar Association representatives and replaces them with two public representatives who are lawyers qualified to serve on the Supreme Court — one selected by the coalition and one by the opposition. According to the petitioners, this would result in an effective political majority of six members, compared with three judges. The law also changes appointment rules: Supreme Court appointments would no longer require a seven-member supermajority; instead, appointments could be made with agreement between coalition and opposition representatives, without the support of any of the judges on the committee.
Petitioners and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara argue that the change constitutes an unconstitutional constitutional amendment — a Basic Law change that so severely harms judicial independence and the separation of powers that it cannot stand. Supreme Court President Isaac Amit has warned that the amendment could change the character of the judiciary.
The High Court’s hearing on the petitions is ongoing, and the timing of a ruling remains unclear. The Jerusalem Post reported that the justices repeatedly questioned whether the overhaul would place judicial appointments under political control.