Judges: Flouting court rulings exposes public servants to lawsuits

The Supreme Court (sitting as the High Cout of Justice) responded today to the government’s decision not to comply with its ruling on the Council of the Second Authority for Television and Radio (the regulator for television channels 12, 13, and 14, and regional radio stations), and made clear that public servants and elected representatives must act according to law. The judges warned that when elected representatives act contrary to judicial decisions, there may be cases in which the personal immunity granted to them from tort lawsuits will not apply.

“The obligation to comply with legal rulings and to honor them is one of the fundamental conditions on which the rule of law in a democratic country is based,” the judges said. “Without compliance with court rulings, the principle of the rule of law is undermined and the social order crumbles. Each person will do what seems right in their own eyes, and a fine line separates the rule of law from anarchy.”

Levin: “Last of the dictators”

In response, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin attacked the Supreme Court justices, calling them “the last of the dictators who have lost the confidence of the public.”

Levin said that the Supreme Court justices’ statement that actions by public servants contrary to judicial decisions would be liable in appropriate cases to lead to legal immunity being inapplicable showed what a nadir the Supreme Court had reached.

“They are threatening to suppress by force those who demand justice. They won’t succeed,” Levin said. “The time has come for the judges to do some soul searching about how they reached this nadir,” he added.

In their statement today, the Supreme Court judges were responding to the statement of the Attorney General against the decision by the government earlier this week that it would not honor decisions by the Council of the Second Authority for Television and Radio despite the ruling in the High Court of Justice that the council can continue to operate despite the resignations of some of its members.

On Sunday, the government unanimously approved a declaration that it would not recognize any decision by the Council of the Second Authority as long as it did not meet the threshold conditions stipulated by law. Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin raised the proposal following the High Court of Justice ruling last month that restored the activity of the Council of the Second appointed under the previous government after members of it resigned and it fell below the minimum number of members required by law.

Tech group buying Reshet 13 as Drahi hits regulatory snags

The government said that it would not entertain any claim of “fait accompli” by entities in the communications market concerning actions taken as a result of decisions by the Council when it did not meet the threshold conditions set by the legislator.

Blow to Karhi

As mentioned, the government’s declaration was directed against the ruling of the High Court of Justice given last month by President of the Supreme Court Yitzhak Amit and justices Alex Stein and Ruth Ronen which froze the government’s decision in March to appoint Dr. Yifat Ben Hai Segev as chairperson of the Council of the Second Authority, along with other new members of the Council.

The High Court of Justice also restored the activity of the Council of the Second Authority despite the resignations of six of its members. It was found that the resignations should not be taken into account in for the purposes of determining the number of Council members, as a result of which the required quorum was reduced, and the Council was enabled to convene and make decisions.

The judges criticized the circumstances of the Council members’ resignations and said that from their affidavits there arose a “heavy suspicion” that the move was designed to thwart the legal proceedings.

The practical effect of the High Court of Justice ruling is that the outgoing Council of the Second Authority will continue to serve at this stage and will be able to examine the acquisition of Channel 13 (Reshet) by a group of technology entrepreneurs headed by Assaf Rappaport, one of the founders of Wiz, a cloud security company sold to Google for $32 billion. The decision represented a severe blow to Minister of Communications Karhi.

After the government’s declaration at the beginning of the week, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs claimed that it did not call for non-compliance with a High Court of Justice ruling, but that it represented “fierce criticism of a ruling that is contrary to the explicit language of the law.”

“The government declared that it would act with all the legal means at its disposal to cancel the decision in the future,” he added.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 7, 2026.

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