The High Court of Justice ruled unanimously on Sunday that Justice Minister Yariv Levin is obligated to cooperate with Supreme Court President Isaac Amit in order to make appointments to judicial vacancies requiring the approval of both figures, including court presidents and deputy presidents, a Supreme Court registrar, and judges on parole boards.

In a sharply worded ruling, the three justices who presided over the case said Levin himself was exclusively responsible for the failure to make the appointments.

The court pointed out that Levin’s refusal to recognize Amit as president was an extension of his earlier campaign to thwart his appointment altogether, implying that the justice minister’s position was borne of ulterior motives and not real legal objections.

The court also accused Levin of “inappropriately” claiming that Amit’s appointment was invalid, based on his own refusal to complete bureaucratic steps involved in formalizing the appointment, the absence of which, he then claimed to the court, meant Amit’s appointment was invalid.

And the court further accused Levin of hypocrisy since he has recognized Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, who was appointed in the same meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee as Amit.

In a final withering summation, the court asserted that the legitimacy of Amit’s appointment was so clear that to deny so was “to deny reality.”

The ruling was issued by justices Ofer Grosskopf, Alex Stein, and Yechiel Kasher.

Levin said in response sarcastically that he agreed the justice minister should work together with the Supreme Court president “when there is one.”

The decision is another legal setback for Levin in the High Court, following last week’s ruling that he was obligated to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to fill the dozens of vacancies on judicial benches around the country after 16 months of refusal to convene the panel to make such appointments.

Levin’s refusal to make appointments has led to an acute lack of judges on numerous magistrate and district courts around the........

© The Times of Israel