(Ynet,INN,Haaretz). Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scored a political victory on Monday after his preferred choices for a seat on the Judicial Appointment Committee prevailed in a secret parliamentary ballot.
The Knesset has elected MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beitenu) and Uri Ariel (National Union) as its representatives to the Judicial Appointment Committee with 64 votes and 59 votes, respectively. MK Roni Bar-On (Kadima) came third with 58 votes.
Ariel was a surprise winner for the "opposition" slot. Ariel's race against Bar-On was the subject of great tension, with some Likud members saying they would vote for Bar-On - despite Bar-On's centrist-left orientation. In the event, Ariel received 59 votes, one more than Bar-On's 58.
The results of the vote mean that the nationalist camp, for the first time in memory, has a slight edge in the appointment of judges in the coming year.
Kadima harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the election of coalition MKs as the Knesset's representatives to the Judicial Appointment Committee.
"Netanyahu is personally behind the takeover of the High Court of Justice and the trampling of all the rules of the democratic game," Kadima said in a written statement.
The nine-member Committee for the Appointment of Judges is headed by the Justice Minister, in this case Likud-appointee Yaakov Ne’eman. Its other members include another Cabinet minister (Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud, chosen Sunday morning by the Cabinet), three Supreme Court justices, including the Chief Justice, two members of the Israeli Bar Association, and two Knesset Members – generally one from the coalition and one from the opposition.
