The High Court of Justice requested on Sunday that Justice Minister Yariv Levin consider filling judicial vacancies on the Beersheba and Haifa district courts in cooperation with the rest of the members of the Judicial Selection Committee.

Levin’s representative, Zion Amir, indicated cautious optimism over such a possibility, and the court gave Levin until the end of Tuesday to respond to the request.

The effort to reach a compromise over such appointments came at the end of a court hearing over petitions demanding that Levin convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill dozens of vacancies on judicial benches around the country.

The justices were critical of Levin’s refusal to convene the committee, with Justice Ofer Grosskopf, who headed the three-judge panel, accusing Levin of creating the current dearth of judges by refusing to convene the selection committee for 16 months, and then claiming, in response to the petitions, that there is no longer enough time for the appointments process before elections are called.

But although the judges were critical of numerous aspects of Levin’s behavior, they appeared anxious to achieve a practical solution for the district courts where the lack of judges is most acute, Beersheba and Haifa, without having to issue a ruling.

Such a ruling would entail ordering Levin to take multiple bureaucratic steps that would give the justice minister room to evade in practice fulfilling the order and further worsen the ongoing, low-level constitutional crisis that has been brewing between the government and the judiciary.

Levin, who as justice minister heads the Judicial Selection Committee, has refused to convene the panel and make appointments........

© The Times of Israel