The High Court of Justice criticized the fact that no woman was elected for the committee that appoints dayanim (rabbinical court judges), in response to an appeal by religious women’s organization Emunah. Until lately, at least one woman served in the ten-member committee, but in November the Israeli Bar Association chose two men as representatives.

For the first time in 12 years, the Rabbinic Courts’ Judicial Appointments Committee will not include a single woman.

A legislative proposal to alter the representation of the Israel Bar Association in the Judicial Selection Committee will be up for review on Sunday in the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs.  The proposal suggests that in committees in which the Bar Association has two representatives, one of them will be the chairman of the Bar Association as a representative of the majority factions, and the other will be chosen by the Bar’s opposition factions.  The proposal was put forward by the chairman of Yisrael Beitenu, Robert Ilatov, and it includes the Committees for the selection of Jewish and Muslim religious judges (Dayanim and Qadis, respectively).  A source familiar with the balance of power in the Bar Association referred to the proposal as unconstitutional, and stated that it marks an outrageous government intervention in the operation of the Bar Association – an independent statutory body – with the intent of trying to control legislative proposals and the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee.  In addition to Mr. Ilatov, the legislative proposal is signed by MK’s Uri Ariel, Ze’ev Elkin, and Yariv Levin from the Likud.

(Hebrew)