The High Court of Justice froze attorney Michael Rabello’s entry into office as state comptroller on Wednesday, as it considers petitions seeking to overturn the Knesset vote that elected him.
The interim order came just days before Rabello was due to begin his term; therefore, starting Sunday, there will be no sitting state comptroller, as the decision made no mention of an extension of the term of current comptroller Matanyahu Englman.
The decision, signed by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, and Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, Gila Canfy-Steinitz, and Ruth Ronnen, stressed that the freeze was intended to allow the legal process to be completed and a final ruling to be issued as soon as possible.
Sohlberg and Canfy-Steinitz are considered on the conservative side of the legal aisle, which makes the decision particularly noteworthy in its unanimity.
Rabello was elected on June 3 after a disputed two-round Knesset vote. In the first round, retired Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron received 60 votes, and Rabello received 57, leaving both candidates short of the required 61-vote majority.
A second round was then held. Opposition lawmakers alleged that coalition MKs had been asked to photograph or film their ballots behind the curtain, despite the requirement that the state comptroller be elected by secret ballot. The vote was halted and restarted, after which Rabello defeated Elron 61-57.
Court previously proposed Knesset hold new vote to solve dispute
A series of petitions followed, including from Yesh Atid and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. The petitioners argued that documenting votes turned the secret ballot into a loyalty test and could have prevented MKs from voting freely.
The court previously proposed that the Knesset hold a new vote in order to resolve the dispute. After Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejected that proposal, the court issued a conditional order requiring the Knesset, Rabello, Likud, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explain why the result should not be annulled.
Rabello, the Knesset, Likud, and Netanyahu have opposed the petitions. They have argued that there was no proof that MKs were instructed or coerced to document their ballots, and that no explicit rule barred lawmakers from voluntarily recording their own vote.
Rabello has also rejected claims that his longstanding professional ties to Netanyahu, Likud, the Prime Minister’s Office, and ministers should disqualify him from the role. He has argued that any specific conflict of interest can be addressed through an arrangement once he enters office.
The court’s conditional order, however, focused on the integrity of the vote itself rather than on Rabello’s eligibility.
Yair Lapid welcomes decision
Elron, as a respondent himself – and as the figure initially broadly supported by the coalition to take the role before they switched their support to Rabello – wrote in his own preliminary response that the vote was conducted unlawfully. Notable is the history between Elron and some members of the bench: His fraught relationship with the Supreme Court came in 2023, when he challenged the seniority convention and put himself forward for the presidency ahead of Amit.
Former prime minister Yair Lapid, whose Yesh Atid faction is among the petitioners, welcomed the decision.
“I welcome the High Court’s decision to freeze the appointment of the state comptroller,” Lapid said. “As we wrote in the petition we filed on the matter, these elections were contaminated, and Netanyahu’s private attorney cannot be appointed to the role.”
The Movement for Quality Government said that it welcomed the order halting Rabello’s entry into office, calling the selection “an appointment born in sin” that passed through “an unlawful vote.”
The organization said Rabello should withdraw his candidacy himself, but it added that it trusted the court to issue a ruling safeguarding the rule of law and the public interest in the State Comptroller’s Office.
Keshet Neev and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.