Petitions against Genot premature, state tells High Court

But state promises new police chief won't be appointed before the court has time to rule on the petitions.

By DAN IZENBERG
Yaakov Genot 298.88 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Yaakov Genot 298.88
(photo credit: Channel 10)
The state told the High Court of Justice on Thursday that three petitions filed against the appointment of Cmdr. Ya'acov Genot as chief of police were premature at this time, but promised he would not be appointed before the court had time to rule on the petitions. The High Court has scheduled a hearing for the three petitions on Sunday morning. The state argued that it is not certain that Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter will ask the cabinet to approve Genot's appointment. At this point, there is still a chance he will not. He could change his mind if the advisory committee on senior civil service appointments issues a negative opinion about Genot. According to the procedures established by the government for appointing senior civil servants, including the chief of police, the minister responsible for recommending the appointment must first receive an opinion from an advisory committee established to examine the suitability of the candidate. The current head of the committee is retired Supreme Court Justice Ya'acov Turkel. The state's representative, attorney Dina Silver, wrote that only after the committee submits its opinion to Dichter, can he make a final decision about whether he wants to go ahead with the nomination or choose someone else. Therefore, wrote Silver, "the petitions are premature and not ripe for judicial deliberations so long as the internal security minister has not finalized his decision about the nomination, and he can only do that after receiving the opinion of the advisory committee."