Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally caved in a month after opposing the reappointment of Blue and White leader Benny Gantz as justice minister in the current transitional government.
The government approved the nomination by phone-in vote midafternoon Wednesday.
Netanyahu’s U-turn came three hours before a scheduled 3:30 p.m. hearing before the High Court of Justice, where his lawyer had been harshly lectured Tuesday night over the prime minister’s conduct. The hearing was postponed until next week because the appointment of a justice minister, the main issue, was resolved.
However, Netanyahu also committed to filling all other ministerial vacancies at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, and the state must provide an update on this to the High Court by 4 p.m. on Monday.
In a statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that he had detailed legal arguments to counter those of the High Court and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, who both maintained his prior actions concerning the justice minister appointment were against the law.
Already late Tuesday night, the High Court froze Netanyahu’s attempt to appoint Likudnik and Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis as justice minister.
Netanyahu’s statement explained that his agreement to appoint Gantz was a way “out of the deadlock,” even if he thought he could defend his legal position blocking the Blue and White leader.
Wednesday’s developments followed an unparalleled day of legal drama.
Midafternoon Tuesday, after hours of a stormy cabinet meeting, the Likud and its allies voted to appoint Akunis, despite Mandelblit’s ruling that the vote was illegal because Blue and White had not consented to it.
The meeting itself came about under pressure from Mandelblit, the High Court and Gantz following the post’s four-week vacancy.
Gantz filled the post for a temporary three-month period until the start of April, but Netanyahu has blocked his Blue and White Party from filling it permanently ever since.
“We followed through on our pledge to stop Bibi’s plan, and will continue to protect democracy,” Blue and White said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
During the cabinet meeting, there was frequent shouting, accusations of conflicts of interest, of violating the law, and a general feeling that the Likud and Blue and White could barely sit in the same room together, let alone resolve the issue.
Netanyahu claimed that it made no sense to appoint a permanent justice minister who could bind the next government’s hands on certain issues, when a new government could come into being at any moment.
Instead, he suggested either granting certain powers of the justice minister to Gantz to resolve specific issues, or having separate, broader political negotiations with the Blue and White leader.
In the meantime, Gantz and other Blue and White officials said Netanyahu was acting cynically, or even violating conflict of interest laws that prevent him from being involved in law enforcement issues while under indictment.
Public Security Minister Amir Ohana retorted that Gantz had conflict of interest issues because of the Fifth Dimension saga probe (though he is not a suspect there), and that the coalition agreement empowering Gantz to decide who the justice minister will be is null and void now that there is a new Knesset.
Mandelblit said that no one has a conflict of interest on the issue, but that a justice minister is needed to resolve the problem of unvaccinated prisoners coming to court in person.
He added that it would be a disaster if the High Court has to intervene to appoint a justice minister itself.
In a shocking moment, Netanyahu denied Mandelblit the right to speak before holding the vote to approve Akunis, allowing him to declare the vote illegal only after it had already been held.
Later Tuesday, the High Court justices appeared to say that they agreed with Mandelblit: that Netanyahu and the Likud had violated their own coalition agreement with Blue and White by holding a vote without acknowledging the other party’s veto.
Under the coalition deal, the Likud controls one set of ministries and Blue and White controls another one, including the justice ministry.
Mandelblit gave Netanyahu permission to bring in lawyer David Peter to represent him, since the differences between the sides left him incapable of defending the executive branch’s position.
However, Peter faced a harsh audience, with the justices cutting him off left and right and insisting that he recognize that Mandelblit’s views were binding on Netanyahu.
Moreover, they said it was highly problematic that Netanyahu had prevented Mandelblit from speaking before the vote that appointed Akunis.
They lectured Peter that the High Court is not like a playmate in a rough-and-tumble. Rather, the justices said, power-grabbing a ministry – in violation of the coalition agreement that Netanyahu agreed to and enshrined into law – was an issue of paramount constitutional relevance to the court’s jurisdiction.