Last update - 00:00 29/11/2006
Gov't, Knesset to approve new Justice Minister on Wednesday
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to submit his choice for justice minister to the Knesset and the cabinet for their approval Wednesday. The cabinet, sitting in accelerated session in a conference room in the Knesset, is expected to approve the appointment, after which it will go immediately to a Knesset plenum vote. If all goes as planned, this will bring an end to a one-week period in which no one held the reins of the Justice Ministry.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has been sending very blunt messages to Olmert, via both direct and indirect means, warning of the "black hole" resulting from the failure to appoint a permanent justice minister before the temporary appointment of Meir Sheetrit ended last Thursday. Mazuz rendered an opinion prohibiting the appointment of another acting minister of justice or the automatic devolution of the justice minister's authority onto the prime minister.
Mazuz signaled Olmert to appoint a permanent justice minister at the first opportunity following the expiration of Sheetrit's term as acting minister, but the prime minister did not submit a name during the cabinet's session on Monday.
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office still insist that this "permanent" appointment will be for one month only, until former justice minister Haim Ramon is acquitted and returns to his post. Candidates for the position include Sheetrit, Roni Bar-On and Isaac Herzog.