Justice Minister Yariv Levin said Wednesday morning that the Knesset should not abide by a High Court of Justice ruling that invalidated the results of the state comptroller election last month and ordered the Knesset to redo the vote.

The justice minister said that the Knesset should not hold a new election for the position, and that Michael Rabello — a longtime lawyer and adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was elected state comptroller in the now-overturned ballot — should simply take up the position regardless of the ruling. Levin added that the coalition backed his stance.

Levin’s comments mark the second time this week that he and the Netanyahu coalition have attacked the legitimacy of the High Court head-on, in what is becoming an increasingly intense constitutional clash between the two branches of government.

“There is no possibility of holding repeat elections, and no one disputes this within the coalition,” Levin told the ultra-Orthodox Kol Barama radio station.

“The running of the Knesset is in the hands of the Knesset speaker and the Knesset House Committee, and is not in the hands of the court. The High Court judges cannot simply become the Knesset speaker and deliberate on… whether an election was legal,” continued the justice minister.

Rabello was elected by the Knesset as state comptroller in a highly controversial election on June 3, where at least six coalition MKs violated the legal requirement that the vote be held by secret ballot.

This led the High Court to rule the election invalid earlier this month, and order the Knesset to redo the vote.

Levin in his interview said that in his opinion Rabello “should simply enter the [state........

© The Times of Israel