Background
Three petitions, consolidated before a panel of Justices Yael Willner, Ofer Grosskopf, and Khaled Kabub, challenge the process by which the government has moved to appoint Yehuda Eliyahu as Director of the Israel Land Authority (רשות מקרקעי ישראל). The petitioners — the Academy for Israeli Democracy, the Arab Center for Alternative Planning, and a coalition of women’s organizations (the Women’s Lobby in Israel, Na’amat, and the Deborah Forum on women in foreign and security policy) — named as respondents Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Housing Minister Haim Katz, the Civil Service Commissioner, the Attorney General, and the Search Committee that selected the candidate, as well as Eliyahu himself.
The underlying dispute concerns whether the appointment procedure complied with civil-service law and government-appointment norms, including, in particular, gender-representation requirements raised by the women’s-organization petitioners. A substantive hearing on the merits of the petitions is scheduled for 1 July 2026.
Twelve accredited journalists and media outlets filed a separate request asking the court to permit live broadcast of that hearing, invoking the court’s statutory power under Section 70(b) of the Courts Law [Consolidated Version], 5744-1984, which authorises the Supreme Court to allow proceedings to be televised or streamed.
The Court’s Holding
The 23 June 2026 decision is purely procedural: the panel announced that it is actively considering granting the journalists’ request and conducting a live broadcast of the 1 July 2026 hearing. The court did not rule on the merits of the underlying appointment dispute.
Rather than granting or denying the broadcast request outright, the court directed that any party to the petitions who objects to live broadcasting must notify the court by 25 June 2026 at 12:00 noon. The order implies that absent a credible objection the court is inclined to allow the broadcast.
Key Takeaways
- This decision is procedural only — it sets a deadline for objections to broadcasting and does not address the legality of the Israel Land Authority director appointment.
- The court grounded its authority to order a live broadcast in Section 70(b) of the Courts Law [Consolidated Version], 5744-1984, the standard Israeli statutory basis for televising court proceedings.
- The case draws significant public interest: twelve journalists from major Israeli outlets (Globes, Channel 12, Channel 13, Channel 14, Haaretz, Ynet, Walla, Maariv, Galatz, Israel Hayom, Bizportal, and Kan News) jointly requested the broadcast.
- The substantive hearing on the appointment challenge remains set for 1 July 2026.
Why It Matters
The Israel Land Authority controls the vast majority of land in Israel, making the identity and appointment process of its director a matter of substantial public and economic consequence. The three sets of petitioners represent civil-society, Arab-minority, and gender-equality perspectives, signalling that the appointment controversy touches on multiple dimensions of administrative fairness and representative governance.
The court’s willingness to consider live-streaming the hearing reflects a broader trend in Israeli judicial practice toward transparency in high-profile public-law proceedings. If broadcast is ultimately permitted, the 1 July hearing will be among the more visible HCJ sessions in recent memory, potentially influencing public discourse on civil-service appointments and government accountability well beyond the immediate dispute.