The High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected multiple petitions demanding that an opposition MK be appointed to the powerful Judicial Selection Committee.In July, the Knesset chose the government’s handpicked candidates – Likud MK Osnat Hila Mark and Derech Eretz MK Zvi Hauser – as its representatives on the committee, giving the opposition no representation.In most recent Knessets, one of the two MKs on the committee came from the opposition.However, the government has taken the position that since Hauser is connected with the Blue and White Party, the idea of making sure one of the two MKs does not come from the ruling party, currently the Likud, will still be fulfilled.When the issue initially came before the High Court in May, the court also seemed ready to look the other way since the government itself is multi-headed, although the justices did criticize the idea of not having an official opposition member on the committee.The nine-member committee is made up of three High Court justices, two Israel Bar Association appointees, the justice minister – who chairs the committee – another government minister, and the two non-minister members of the Knesset that were the subject of the petition.Justices Isaac Amit, Daphna Barak-Erez and Anat Baron all agreed with the petitioners that Israeli democracy would be better served if there were an opposition MK on the committee, but said that they had no authority to enforce this. Similarly, they agreed that many mature democracies around the world had opposition input in judicial choices, but added that this was not a uniform nor binding principle of democracy. They said that despite recent Knesset practice, there has not been any irrevocable principle requiring an opposition MK to serve on the committee for over seven decades.Like at the earlier May preliminary hearing, the justices said that having an MK who was not from the Likud also seemed to serve the same purpose by promoting a diversity of views.Most importantly, they said that the courts must respect the separation of powers and should not overly intervene in issues under the Knesset’s auspices. The petitions were filed by the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel, the Guardians of Israeli Democracy and lawyer Moshe Shapira.
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