High Court fines Knesset Speaker Ohana 10,000 shekels but won't order comptroller vote

Israel's High Court of Justice has turned down a petition that asked it to compel Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to hold a fresh vote for the post of state comptroller, but the justices sharply criticised him for failing to carry out an earlier court ruling. The Times of Israel reported that the court found Ohana had undermined democratic governance and damaged the rule of law and the public interest by refusing to hold the new election, despite having been told to do so "as quickly as possible."

The judges also ordered Ohana to pay legal costs of 10,000 shekels, according to N12's legal correspondent Yael Yaffe, a detail Ynet also reported. Hebrew political commentator Amit Segal cited the court as writing that the speaker's prolonged avoidance of complying with the ruling amounted to serious harm to the order of government and the regime.

Why the court declined to intervene

The petitioners wanted the court to require Ohana to set a date for a second round of voting on a candidate for comptroller. The court said no, and the reports give its reasoning in slightly different terms.

According to The Times of Israel, the justices held that because the petition was filed so near the recent general election, ordering a repeat ballot was no longer practical. The court also pointed to its own precedent holding that an outgoing Knesset in the final days of its recess, before a new Knesset is sworn in, should refrain from substantive decisions. Ynet framed the rejection as resting on the change in the Knesset's makeup and the possibility that Ohana himself will be replaced as speaker.

The two accounts are compatible: both describe a court unwilling to direct an outgoing parliament and its presiding officer to act in the window before a new parliament takes over.

A rebuke without an order

Although the petition failed, the language of the ruling was pointed. Justice Ruth Ronen, as quoted by The Times of Israel, wrote that obeying and honouring judicial decisions is "a fundamental condition of a democratic regime" governed by the rule of law. Ynet quoted the judges as saying they could not accept the serious harm done to the public interest in protecting the rule of law, "especially by a governmental body."

The costs order fell on the speaker even though the petition against him was rejected, according to both N12 and Ynet.

The institutions involved

The High Court of Justice is Israel's Supreme Court sitting as a court of first instance to hear petitions against state authorities, including the Knesset and its officers. The court's power to review decisions of elected officials is a long-running point of political dispute in Israel.

The Knesset is Israel's single-chamber parliament. Its speaker controls the parliamentary agenda, including when votes are scheduled in the plenum. Ohana, a member of the Knesset, holds that post.

The state comptroller is the official who audits government ministries and public bodies and also serves as the state's ombudsman. The comptroller is chosen by the Knesset in a vote of its members, which is why the scheduling of that vote sits with the speaker.

Where this leaves the comptroller post

The ruling means the outgoing Knesset will not be forced to hold the vote. With a new Knesset due to convene following the general election, the question of when lawmakers choose a comptroller passes to the incoming parliament and whoever leads it. Ynet's breaking news service summarised the outcome as the court rejecting the demand that Ohana rerun the comptroller election.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports carries a response from Ohana or his office to the ruling or to the costs order. The petitioners are not named, and the reports do not give the date of the original ruling that Ohana was found to have breached or describe the earlier vote that it ordered repeated. They also do not say when the new Knesset is expected to take up the comptroller election, or which other justices sat on the panel alongside Ronen.