Four days before the judicial selection committee is set to convene to choose new Supreme Court justices, some committee members are voicing objections to perceived conflicts of interest involving personal and professional ties between panel members and judicial candidates.

"Until now, no rules have been set clarifying how a member of the judicial selection committee should act in the case of suspected conflict of interest - that is, a tie between a committee member and a candidate for appointment," committee member attorney Pinhas Marinsky wrote Tuesday to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, the committee chairman.

"It is appropriate for the judicial selection process to be conducted with the utmost transparency and purity, while examining each candidate equally," Marinsky wrote. "This is all the more the case when dealing with the appointments of justices of the highest court in Israel, which regularly deals with constitutional matters and examines reasonableness, propriety and proportionality."

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It is up to Friedmann to decide whether to allow the committee to vote on the candidates on Sunday.

Friedmann is one of four committee members who are known to have ties with at least one candidate - in his case, Hanan Melcer, a personal friend. The justice minister was not responsible for putting Melcer on the candidate list, and he informed the other committee members that he has known Melcer for many years and does not plan to take part in the debate concerning his candidacy.

Two other committee members with potential conflicts of interest are Yuri Guy-Ron, who is in the same Israel Bar Association faction as candidate Yoram Danziger, and Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, whose husband used to be the law partner of candidate Jonathan Adiel, a district court judge. Beinisch also has professional ties with another candidate, Uzi Vogelman, from their days serving in the state prosecution.

Both Guy-Ron and Beinisch said they had no intention of absenting themselves from the debate on the candidates with whom they have ties.

Another possibly problematic relationship turned up yesterday when Interior Minister Roni Bar-On, a committee member, notified Friedmann that candidate Asaf Posner used to represent him on various legal issues. Bar-On asked Friedmann how to act in light of his ties with Posner.

Several panel members said it would make no difference if the members with ties to a specific candidate were to leave the room during the vote on that candidate, because the panel members discuss the candidates before the vote - which is really the time when they can exert influence. Members can also tilt the vote in favor of a candidate by voting against other candidates.