In the best of times, meaning when the Supreme Court and judicial system enjoy broad public trust, appointing someone to head the court who has unresolved ethical questions would be problematic.
In more difficult times, when public trust in the court is already low, such an appointment would be a significant setback. Today, Israel is clearly in those more difficult times.
How difficult? According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2004 annual democracy index, 79% of the public expressed trust in the Supreme Court. In the IDI’s 2024 report, that figure had plummeted to 39%.
That drop is both astounding and deeply troubling. Many factors contributed to this precipitous fall, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign against the courts is definitely one of them. Still, that public faith in the judiciary has been nearly halved in two decades is a stunning reversal.
For the sake of the country, that hemorrhaging of public faith in the courts needs to stop. Israel, like all democracies, needs a Supreme Court and judicial system that commands respect and confidence. Appointing a man with unresolved ethical concerns as Supreme Court president will not achieve that.
Allegations casting a shadow
Unfortunately, Isaac Amit has ethical issues involving conflict of interests hanging over his head. To appoint him now – before thoroughly investigating the allegations – is self-defeating.
Among the allegations that have emerged against Amit in recent weeks is that he adjudicated cases involving lawyers who represented him in a case involving a family-owned property in Tel Aviv; that he heard cases involving the Tel Aviv Municipality even as the municipality was fining the family-owned property; that he heard appeals in cases adjudicated by judges in cases involving the Tel Aviv property while also deciding on their promotions; and that he was the judge in a case where his brother had a clear interest.
In several of these legal processes, Amit appears under the name Goldfriend, his family name before he changed it, and did not report his involvement in personal legal proceedings to the Supreme Court president, as required.
Though no one has accused Amit of criminal wrongdoing, if these allegations are true, they constitute ethical violations. Rather than enhancing the court’s reputation, his appointment would tarnish it further – precisely at a time when the judiciary’s integrity needs bolstering.
Amit has denied any wrongdoing, and in a stinging letter last week to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has been vehemently opposed to his appointment for months, Amit dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign against him.
It is worth noting that the allegations were first uncovered in Yediot Ahronot, not known as a newspaper with an anti-court agenda – if anything, the opposite is true, with follow-up reporting done by Channels 11, 12, and 14.
Amit’s defense echoes Netanyahu’s own defense over the years: “I have done nothing wrong, this is all a campaign against me.”
Even if the timing of the allegations – just days before the Judicial Selection Committee was to meet on his appointment – is politically motivated, that is irrelevant. What matters is whether they are true. And if they are, Amit should not be appointed court president. That position needs to be held by someone above all ethical reproach.
This does not mean that Amit can’t sit on the bench, only that as one with clouds of suspicion over his head, how could he – as the country’s top judge – reprimand other judges for ethical violations?
The source of the allegations matters far less than whether or not they are true. Yet in a very puzzling decision, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara – in a highly confrontational relationship with the government and Levin – declared that no further investigation is needed. We believe she is wrong.
As legal commentator Yuval Elbashan said on his program on KAN Bet on Friday, if someone has a stain on their shirt, the shirt is dirty, and how the stain got there is immaterial.
To appoint Amit, as brilliant a jurist as he might be, to lead the country’s highest court under a cloud of unresolved conflict-of-interest allegations is counter-productive. Israel needs to build up the public’s confidence in the judiciary. This only erodes it further.
Jesus Christ is King
