President of the Supreme Court of Israel

The President of the Supreme Court heads both the Supreme Court itself and Israel's entire judicial system.[1] The office is distinct from that of the Minister of Justice, although the judicial system is nominally linked to both; in practice the president leads the independent judiciary, while the minister heads the executive branch's involvement in legal administration.[7]

The Supreme Court over which the president presides operates in two distinct capacities.[1] As the ordinary apex court, it hears appeals from lower tribunals; as the High Court of Justice, it hears petitions against public bodies, government authorities, and in some circumstances religious tribunals, acting at first instance rather than on appeal.[1] This dual function means the president leads an institution that functions similarly to both a final court of appeal and, in effect, a constitutional court — though Israel has no formal constitution, with Basic Laws serving as a quasi-constitutional framework.[8] Approximately 12,000 proceedings are opened at the Supreme Court annually; about 40 percent are principal proceedings generally heard by a panel, while the remainder are generally heard by a single justice.[1]

Cases before the Supreme Court are ordinarily heard by panels of three justices, though a single justice may dispose of certain matters, and the president or deputy president may expand a panel to any odd number of justices for cases of special importance.[1][7] The president can influence panel size and composition, including by intervening in assignments that ordinarily proceed through the court's administrative calendar.[2] This authority over panel configuration, while largely administrative in day-to-day practice, has significant implications for how the court addresses major legal and constitutional questions.

The office dates to the establishment of the State of Israel and the founding of the Supreme Court in 1948. Moshe Zmora served as the first president from 1948 to 1954, followed by Yitzchak Olshan from 1954 to 1965.[9] Shimon Agranat led the court from 1965 to 1976 and was succeeded by Yoel Zussman, who served until 1980.[9] Moshe Landau served from 1980 to 1982, Yitzchak Kahan from 1982 to 1983, and Meir Shamgar from 1983 to 1995.[9]

Aharon Barak served as president from 1995 to 2006, having joined the Supreme Court as a justice in 1978.[10] His tenure is the most debated in the court's history: supporters credit him with expanding the court's protection of civil and human rights, while critics characterize his era as one in which the court assumed political powers beyond its constitutional mandate and the president accumulated disproportionate influence over judicial appointments.[10][11] After Barak reached the mandatory retirement age and left the presidency, the Knesset later enacted a seven-year term cap on the office, partly in response to the length of his tenure.[10]

Dorit Beinisch served from 2006 to 2012, followed by Asher Dan Grunis from 2012 to 2015 and Miriam Naor from 2015 to 2017.[9] Esther Hayut, the twelfth president of the Supreme Court, took office in October 2017 and served until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.[12] Her career had included service in the Magistrate's Court and District Court before her Supreme Court appointment: she joined the court as an acting justice in March 2003 and received a permanent appointment in May 2004.[12] At the District Court, where she served from 1996 as an acting judge and from 1997 permanently, she handled civil cases, class actions, and administrative proceedings, and also sat on appellate and serious-criminal-case panels.[12] She chaired the Central Elections Committee for the 21st Knesset from May 2015 to March 2017 before assuming the presidency.[12] Over more than 33 years on the bench she issued thousands of decisions and judgments, individually and in panels.[12]

Hayut's retirement in October 2023 opened a vacancy that proved uniquely contentious. Justice Minister Yariv Levin did not convene the Judicial Selection Committee to appoint her successor, leaving the court without a permanent president.[13] Uzi Vogelman initially served as acting president; following his retirement in October 2024, Yitzhak Amit became acting president.[2][4] In September 2024, the High Court of Justice ordered Levin to publish candidates and convene the committee. The court unanimously ruled that his policy of avoiding a vote for more than a year was unlawful.[14] Justice Yael Willner's opinion held that Levin's approach changed the mechanism established by law and gave exclusive weight to achieving broad consensus at the expense of avoiding a prolonged vacancy in the office.[14] Levin called the order illegal and described it as a forceful takeover of the committee.[14]

Rather than proceeding only with the justice next in line under the seniority convention, Levin nominated every justice for president and invited objections to all nominees, as part of the broader dispute over judicial independence and the method of selecting the court's president.[13] The committee ultimately convened on January 26, 2025, after a meeting lasting approximately five and a half hours.[4] Yitzhak Amit received five votes — from Justices Noam Sohlberg and Daphne Barak-Erez, Israel Bar Association representatives Yonit Calmanovich and Muhamad Naamneh, and opposition MK Karin Elharrar — enough to meet the required majority.[4] Levin, Minister Orit Strook, and coalition representative Yitzhak Kroizer boycotted the meeting.[4] Noam Sohlberg was simultaneously chosen as deputy president.[4]

Amit took the oath of office before President Isaac Herzog on February 13, 2025, following the vacancy that began with Hayut's October 2023 retirement. The ceremony was boycotted by both the prime minister and the justice minister.[5][6] A 2026 Supreme Court ruling confirmed that Amit had been duly elected by the Judicial Selection Committee and was serving as president, and ordered Levin to cooperate with Amit in exercising the president's powers, including appointments to judicial leadership positions, appointment of an acting registrar for the Supreme Court, and appointments to parole boards.[5] As of September 2026, Amit's term was expected to run until October 2028.[15]

The powers of the president are grounded in three principal legal instruments: Basic Law: The Judiciary, the Courts Law (Consolidated Version) 5744-1984, and the Commissions of Inquiry Law.[2] They span judicial, managerial, and systemic functions that together make the office the operational center of Israel's court system.

On the judicial side, the president may decide certain appeals involving requests to disqualify a judge for a perceived conflict of interest, and may direct that a retrial be held in a criminal case that has received a final verdict — a power available under specified conditions, including the discovery of new evidence likely to change the outcome, or evidence that a falsehood or forgery may have affected the original result.[7][2] These are significant remedial powers that can reopen concluded proceedings.

In managing the Supreme Court, the president assigns justices to panels, determines panel sizes, and can enlarge panels when a matter of special importance warrants a broader bench.[2] The president also chooses panels for judicial disciplinary hearings and handles aspects of judicial ethics and appointments to ancillary roles.[2] Some powers require agreement with or consultation of another officeholder, including the justice minister, creating an interface between the independent judiciary and the executive branch.[2]

At the system-wide level, the president represents and leads the entire judiciary, not merely the Supreme Court.[7] The Government's Director of the Courts heads the administrative apparatus of the court system but does so under the direction of the Supreme Court president, who sets system goals, conveys instructions to court presidents across the country, and oversees efficient and professional court service; the director is separately responsible to the justice minister for executing administrative procedures under section 82(b) of the Courts Law.[16]

The president also appoints the chair and members of state commissions of inquiry after the government has decided to establish one.[2] This power, exercised in some of Israel's most consequential public inquiries, gives the presidency an influence that extends beyond the court system into broader national governance. Finally, the president is one of three Supreme Court justices who sit on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, a placement that connects the head of the judiciary directly to the process of staffing courts across Israel.[3]

Section 4 of Basic Law: The Judiciary constitutes the Judicial Selection Committee and names the Supreme Court president as one of its nine members.[3] Alongside the president sit two other Supreme Court justices, the justice minister and one additional minister, two Knesset members, and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association; the justice minister chairs the committee.[3] Judges chosen through the committee's process are formally appointed by the President of the State.[3]

Under the arrangement described before the 2025 amendment, appointing a new Supreme Court justice required seven of the committee's nine votes.[17] By contrast, selecting the Supreme Court president required a regular majority of at least five members.[17] The committee was formally designed so that no single institution could dominate it, though critics argued that the arrangement tended to reproduce the Court's existing ideological composition over time.[10]

The Supreme Court president's place on the committee has made the office a focal point in debates about judicial independence and political influence. Critics of the arrangement that prevailed under Chief Justice Aharon Barak argued that the president had gained functional control over the appointments process during that period — an assessment contested as a political characterization rather than a description of formal legal powers.[11] Defenders of the existing structure maintained that placing the judiciary's senior members on the committee protected appointment decisions from pure political bargaining.

On March 26, 2025, the Knesset passed Basic Law: The Judiciary (Amendment No. 4) by a vote of 67 to 1, with opposition factions boycotting the vote.[18] The amendment replaces the Israel Bar Association's two committee representatives with one public representative elected by coalition factions and one elected by opposition factions, and sets a five-member quorum.[18] For the selection of Supreme Court justices, the amended rules require a five-member majority and support from at least two political representatives, but not necessarily the approval of a judge.[18] The law does not directly alter how the Supreme Court president is selected, but it changes the committee on which the president sits.[19] Its provisions are scheduled to take effect when the next Knesset is inaugurated after the October 2026 election; until then, the selection committee as previously constituted could not appoint judges without unanimous agreement among its members.[18]

The president and deputy president are selected from among the Supreme Court's sitting justices by the Judicial Selection Committee and formally appointed by the President of the State.[2] The law does not require that the most senior justice be chosen.

Since the court's establishment in 1948, the practice has been governed by an unwritten seniority convention: the longest-serving sitting justice is customarily the sole candidate submitted to the committee, and the committee formally approves the appointment.[3][17] All past presidents of the Supreme Court were chosen according to this convention.[17] Supporters argue that seniority limits political influence, reduces competition and factionalism among sitting justices, and protects judicial independence by ensuring justices do not position themselves for advancement by impressing politicians, lawyers, or other committee members.[17] Israeli Democracy Institute legal scholars framed this argument directly, contending that seniority "protects the independence of the judges and prevents competition between them."[3]

Critics of the convention argue on different grounds: that selection should reflect demonstrated merit and managerial capacity rather than longevity of service, and that choosing the most senior justice can make the committee's decision effectively predetermined regardless of the candidate's suitability for the administrative and representative demands of the presidency.[17] A 2013 bill introduced by then-Justice Minister Yariv Levin argued that the president and deputy president were influential figures in the country — shaping judicial policy, administration, and spirit — and should therefore be selected through a special democratic process and replaced at fixed intervals.[3]

The president's term was subsequently limited by the Knesset to seven years, a change that came in the wake of Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's reform efforts following Aharon Barak's retirement; Barak had served as president for more than a decade before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.[10] All Supreme Court justices must retire at 70 under the Courts Law.[3] The seven-year presidential term cap therefore operates alongside the age-70 retirement rule for justices.[3][10]

Yitzhak Amit has served as President of the Supreme Court since taking the oath of office on February 13, 2025.[5][6] The Judicial Selection Committee selected him on January 26, 2025, in accordance with the seniority convention.[4]

An INSS survey conducted November 13–16, 2025, found that 40 percent of respondents reported high trust in Amit, while 52 percent reported low trust — figures that reflect the polarized public debate surrounding his presidency.[20] The survey covered a representative sample of Israeli adults aged 18 and above, with a maximum sampling error of ±3.17 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.[20] Polling from early 2025 described his appointment as occurring "after a delay of many months" and recorded sharply differing views about the legitimacy of the process.[21]

In December 2025, Amit warned publicly about dangers to the Israeli public and democracy posed by sustained political attacks on the judiciary and individual judges.[22] At the same time, former president Aharon Barak said of Amit: "The judiciary has a president. He was elected according to the law. Harming him is an injury to the entire judiciary."[23] Barak also characterized the government's stance as refusing to recognize Amit as president, describing it as a position that the court had no president and the judiciary no head — though these were Barak's own characterizations rather than formal legal findings.[23]

Allegations about Amit's conduct and property were raised before the January 2025 selection vote; Amit disputed them, and both the attorney general and the head of the police investigations division stated there was no suspicion of criminal conduct against him.[4] The High Court rejected Justice Minister Levin's request to postpone the vote on that basis, and the selection proceeded.[4] Levin nonetheless declared that he did not recognize Amit as president and characterized the selection process as fundamentally flawed and illegal.[4]

The office of president has become one of the most contested institutional questions in Israeli public life, with several distinct disputes converging in the 2020s.

The seniority convention itself has long attracted competing assessments. Its defenders frame it as a safeguard for judicial independence: Israeli Democracy Institute scholars argued that it protects judges from the need to compete for advancement by currying favor with politicians, lawyers, or other committee members.[3] Its critics respond that the convention effectively predetermines a major appointment and can elevate a justice to the country's most consequential judicial post regardless of that person's fitness for its administrative and representative demands.[17] Proposals to replace seniority with merit-based selection and fixed terms for the president and deputy president have featured in Israeli legislative debates since at least 2013.[3]

A more acute dispute concerns the scope of political influence over the office. A 2023 bill proposed giving the government authority to appoint the Supreme Court president and deputy, including from candidates not then serving on the court; the proposal advanced in the Knesset before promotion of the broader judicial-overhaul package was temporarily suspended.[3] The 2025 Basic Law amendment, which changed the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee by replacing Bar Association seats with politically elected representatives, was described by the Center for Israel Education as intended to increase political influence over judicial appointments, including to the Supreme Court.[19]

The specific vacancy left by Esther Hayut's retirement generated the sharpest confrontation. The High Court's September 2024 ruling that Justice Minister Levin's refusal to convene the selection committee was unlawful, Levin's public defiance of that order, the boycotted January 2025 selection, and the subsequent Supreme Court order directing Levin to cooperate with President Amit collectively represented a severe breakdown in institutional relations between the executive and judicial branches over the presidency.[4][5]

One Jewish Virtual Library page says that the justices elect a permanent president and deputy president from among themselves.[24] That wording conflicts with verified descriptions of formal selection by the Judicial Selection Committee and appointment by the President of the State, while seniority operates as a non-statutory convention.[2][17] The page should therefore not be read as establishing a separate legal procedure.