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Right-wing justice farther from Supreme Court than ever
By Tomer Zarchin
Tags: Israel News, Right Wing 

"I'm not getting down on my hands and knees in order to reach the Supreme Court," Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Drori told his close associates on Sunday.

And then it became clear he is farther than ever from a seat on Israel's highest court. Minister Gilad Erdan announced he was withdrawing his support for Drori's candidacy, which left Drori without the backing of yet another member of the committee that appoints Supreme Court justices. Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman are unlikely to start supporting him.

Drori is one of four controversial candidates put forth by the committee's right-wing bloc - Erdan (Likud), MK Uri Ariel (National Union) and MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu). Drori has been agitated. After days of widely-publicized attacks, he has received dozens of phone calls from judges and lawyers offering support. He has been harshly criticized for not convicting a yeshiva student who ran over a cashier in a parking lot, in order not to hurt the student's chances of being appointed to a rabbinic court. In his decision, Drori wrote that the event improved the Ethiopian victim's chances to be accepted in Israeli society as an equal. The decision, handed down last year, is in appeal in the Supreme Court.
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However, his candidacy has aroused opposition regardless of that decision.

Drori has not considered withdrawing from the race.

"Why should I give anyone a prize? If I withdraw, it's like I'm admitting I was unqualified from the start," he has said.

Details of just how Drori was proposed to the committee last week, right after it convened for the first time, came to light Monday.

On June 14, Drori sent Beinisch a letter presenting his candidacy. Drori attached a thick file of his rulings, a list of articles he had authored and his curriculum vitae. Drori requested a meeting with Beinisch and even called her office twice, but Beinisch did not call him back.

After the committee convened, about a week and a half ago, Drori turned to the president of the Jerusalem District Court, Moussia Arad, and asked her to speak to Beinisch for him. Arad told Drori that Beinisch said "the list of candidates to the Supreme Court is closed."

Last week, Drori received a phone call from MK Ariel, one of the founders of Ma'aleh Adumim, which Drori had represented as a private lawyer.

"Ariel and I are not friends. I don't whether he's married or how many children he has," Drori told his friends. Ariel told Drori by phone that Beinisch wanted the list of candidates to remain closed. Drori told his friends that Ariel said he'd been keeping track of him for a long time, and was surprised that he had not been put on the Supreme Court earlier.

"Beinisch has her own agenda, and we have ours," Ariel reportedly said to Drori. Three days later Drori discovered that three of the members of the appointment committee had recommended him.

Drori wants to reach the Supreme Court, but not at any price. He has told his associates that his critics have not read the controversial decision, which is 320 pages long. First of all, he says, the decision not to convict the yeshiva student was based on the recommendation of the probation service. He also cited Supreme Court decisions supporting not convicting a defendant under certain circumstances, even if he or she is proven guilty.

"The complainant forgave the accused, and stated this in the court protocol," Drori has told friends, "and she received monetary compensation, which is unusual in these cases."

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