Supreme Court Invalidates Justice Minister Levin’s Appointment of Retired Judge Yosef Ben Hamo

A panel of Supreme Court justices, headed by Court President Yitzhak Amit, ruled on Wednesday that the appointment of retired judge Yosef Ben Hamo—selected by Justice Minister Yariv Levin to oversee the investigation into the leak in the “Yemen Field” affair—was invalid due to significant flaws in the selection process. The affair is also widely associated with Defence Ministry legal adviser Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.

President Amit, joined by Justices Yael Wilner and Khaled Kaboob, found that the appointment lacked a “minimally established factual foundation,” raising doubts about the motives behind the decision. The court held that both the appointment and the consultation with the Acting Civil Service Commissioner were unsupported by sufficient factual groundwork.

Court: Law Does Not Justify Ad Hoc Appointment 

In his opinion, President Amit also addressed a fundamental legal flaw: the interpretation of Section 23A(d) of the Civil Service Appointments Law, the provision invoked to justify the appointment. He wrote that the section authorises assigning a specific function to a civil servant—not appointing an external figure through an ad hoc process.

Because the law concerns the assignment of a defined task to an existing civil service position holder, Amit determined that “there is no justification for designated recruitment outside the civil service,” thereby undermining the legal basis of Ben Hamo’s selection.

Lack of Proper Review Process

The ruling emphasised the need for a solid factual basis in weighty administrative decisions. According to the decision, the Justice Ministry failed to demonstrate that it had conducted a meaningful review to ensure that no suitable candidate existed within the civil service—contrary to the standards established in prior court decisions, including those relating to appointments connected to the “Democracy Guard.”

The court concluded that these cumulative defects required the cancellation of the appointment.