Supreme Court Justice Khaled Kabub on Friday rejected five petitions seeking to block David Zini from assuming the role of head of the Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet, and ordered that hearings on the petitions be scheduled by the end of November.
Last week, the government unanimously approved Zini’s appointment after it was pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to a political and legal upheaval. Zini stepped into the role on Sunday.
The Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, headed by former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, had unanimously ruled that there were no issues regarding his integrity.
Attorney-General Gali Miara flagged legal challenges related to the appointment, but did not recommend blocking it, and she will prepare a conflict-of-interest arrangement to prevent Zini from handling cases connected to the “Qatargate” investigations due to their link to the Prime Minister’s Office, which the agency began probing last November, and, per ousted Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, were when the pushes for his removal took full force.
NGO The Movement for Quality Government and the “Homat Magen” forum argued in their petition that the Grunis Committee failed to properly consider all relevant integrity concerns regarding Netanyahu, noting his alleged involvement in Qatargate, as well as a “pattern of conflict-of-interest arrangements” that, they argued, required heightened scrutiny and in-depth review.
Twenty-six other petitioners, including senior IDF reserve officers, academics, and business leaders, also claimed that Netanyahu is in a “severe and primary-level conflict of interest” as a result of his ongoing criminal trial, and due to the involvement of his advisors and associates as suspects in the Qatargate investigations.
A group of four protesters also petitioned, arguing that Netanyahu’s personal interests created a severe conflict of interest, making it impossible to retroactively authorize Zini’s two-month-old selection.
Zini's appointment by Netanyahu violates constitution, say protestors
They claimed that Netanyahu’s recommendation and the government’s approval were tainted by improper considerations or, at the very least, extreme unreasonableness, and that the appointment should have been handled by an interim appointee under close legal oversight.
NGO Commanders for Israel's Security, comprised of 550 retired officials from the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, Police and the National Security Council, requested that the appointment be conditional on the creation of “an independent, non-political national mechanism that ensures with a high level of certainty that the appointment is made solely to protect Israel’s democratic character and the non-partisan, apolitical nature of the service.”
The group argued that Zini’s appointment by Netanyahu violates the constitutional prohibition against undermining Israel’s democratic character.