The Judicial Selection Committee appointed judges for the first time in a year and a half on Sunday, filling dozens of vacancies on magistrate courts as well as on traffic, youth, and family courts.

The appointments come following legal pressure exerted through petitions to the High Court of Justice asking that it order Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the committee and fill some of the 51 vacancies on numerous magistrate and district courts around the country.

Seventeen judges were appointed to magistrate courts in the northern and Haifa districts; 12 judges were appointed to traffic courts; six to youth courts; and 12 to the family courts.

In addition, six magistrate court presidents were promoted to serve as district court judges, while 15 temporary judges were appointed to district courts to help ease the heavy case burden they are facing after 18 months, in which numerous vacancies have opened without new judges being appointed.

MK Karine Elharrar of the Yesh Atid party, representing the opposition in the Judicial Selection Committee, abstained from the promotion of the magistrate court presidents together with the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, in protest of Levin’s refusal to make appointments to magistrate courts in the Central, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem districts, where there are acute shortages of judges.

The three Supreme Court justices on the committee voted with the three coalition representatives on the appointments, ensuring that they would pass.

Among the magistrate court presidents promoted was Judge Menahem Mizrahi, who has overseen numerous requests by police for restrictive conditions for the suspects in the Qatargate affair in his Rishon Lezion magistrate’s court. The suspects, close aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are alleged to have conducted a public........

© The Times of Israel