The government-appointed head of the Second Authority, the commercial broadcasting regulatory body, announced Sunday night that she was resigning her position, months after the High Court of Justice froze her appointment.

Yifat Ben Hai Segev, a government loyalist and former chair of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, said she could not remain as the nominal head of the Second Authority because of her objections to how the High Court has managed the case against her appointment.

Earlier this year the court halted the entry of Ben Hai Segev as head of the Second Authority Council, along with two other government appointees to the body, as it examined petitions against their appointment which claimed they were part of an effort to politicize the council and stymie the buyout of one of Israel’s most influential media outlets.

The fierce struggle for control over the Second Authority has boiled over into a constitutional crisis between the government and the court, and also comes against the background of far-reaching government legislation that would weaken the Second Authority and increase government control over broadcast media regulation.

“There is still no ruling from the High Court of Justice. Four months have passed. I didn’t take the position for the sake of the position. I saw myself as a representative of the public. In such an absurd situation, I can’t just sit on the sidelines, because silence is complicity,” Ben Hai Segev said on pro-government network Channel 14 on Sunday night.

“This is an exceptional, distorted situation that must not be normalized. We have entered a recurring pattern in which the government makes an appointment, someone goes to the High Court, and the High Court stops it.”

Ben Hai Segev’s resignation comes amid a bitter fight over the Second Authority between the government, its opponents who petitioned the court against........

© The Times of Israel