The Judicial Appointments Committee (JAC) will convene on January 31, 2007 to appoint dozens of new judges to district, magistrate and labor courts, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said on Thursday.

However, it will not appoint new Supreme Court justices at that meeting. Livni intends to pass this task on to the next justice minister, whether that is Haim Ramon (if he returns to the post after his trial ends) or someone else.

The court system has been suffering from a severe shortage of judges for a long time, among other things due to repeated cancellations of JAC meetings. New judges were last appointed in March 2005, a year and nine months ago. Since then, dozens of judges have retired, and today more than 30 judicial positions are unfilled.

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Over the past year, the JAC convened only twice - to approve the appointments of Dorit Beinisch as Supreme Court president and Eliezer Rivlin as deputy president.

Livni's announcement was made in a letter from her bureau chief, attorney Ilan Yonas, to attorney Haim Stanger. About a month ago, Stanger wrote to Livni on behalf of his client, Ben-Zion Citrin, and demanded that she convene the JAC immediately to appoint new judges to the Supreme Court and other courts. Stanger said that failure to appoint judges hinders judicial proceedings and impairs justice.

But despite the acute and prolonged shortage of Supreme Court justices, Livni will refrain from appointing new justices, leaving this to wait until Ramon either resumes office (if acquitted) or is permanently replaced (if convicted).

Livni and Beinisch did agree to extend the appointments of two temporary Supreme Court justices, David Cheshin and Dvora Berliner. But temporary appointments for two other justices - Zvi Zylbertal and Uzi Vogelman - are being held up.

Livni did not appoint Supreme Court justices during her previous term as justice minister either. First, she avoided convening the JAC in an effort to muster majority support for Professor Ruth Gavison, her preferred candidate. Later, she was prohibited from convening the committee due to the approaching elections.

In an effort to overcome the shortage in judges, the Courts Administration and the Justice Ministry recently decided to enable retired judges to continue working in small claims court and courts for local affairs, even if they are over 75 years of age.