Thirty-four new judges have been appointed by the Judicial Appointments Committee, among them Israel’s first male Ethiopian judge, Bialin Elazar, who will serve on the bench of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.

Elazar, who previously served a state prosecutor, will join two female Ethiopian judges who were appointed two years ago.

The chairwoman of the Israel Bar Association’s National Council, Hava Klemperer Maretzki, was not appointed to the Haifa Magistrate’s Court as anticipated. Maretzki is a close associate of the Bar Association’s chairman, Efraim Nave, who is currently under criminal investigation for allegedly smuggling an acquaintance into Israel without going through passport control.

In a September committee meeting, the members opposed Klemperer-Maretzki’s appointment to the district court, and proposed instead she be given a seat on the magistrate’s court bench with a temporary appointment to the district court. Meanwhile the investigation against Nave began as Klemperer-Maretzki came to his defense. Nave, who is a member of the Judicial Appointments Committee, was not present in the meeting. Instead of Klemperer-Maretzki, two court registrars were promoted to judges, Gila Safra-Barnea and Hadas Shechter-Israeli.

Open gallery view FILE Photo: Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, 2018. Credit: Emil Salman

Among the other appointments, the deputy president of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Mordechai Kaduri, was promoted to the Jerusalem District Court. Kaduri had recently been appointed as mediator in the case of the fraud charges against Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife. Another magistrate's court judge, Einat Avman-Muller, was also promoted to the district court.

Among theTel Aviv Magistrate's Court judges promoted to the district court in Tel Aviv were Judge Rachel Arkobi, whose appointment was pushed for by Likud MK Nurit Koren hoping to increase the number of judges of Mizrahi origin on the bench. Arkobi has served in Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for 21 years, where she began her career as a registrar.

Two judges were promoted to the Nazareth District Court – Tamar Nissim Shai, who had held a temporary appointment to the district court, and Einav Golomb, who had served as a magistrate’s court judge for seven years in Nazareth.

Open gallery view FILE Photo: Havah Klemperer Maretzki and , Efi Naveh, 2015. Credit: Gideon Markovitz

Two civil attorneys were also appointed to the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court – Ayelet Har Nof and Sari Sender-Makover. Sender-Makover’s father, Aharon Makover, had served until recently as the Lod District Court bench.

Acre Magistrate’s Court Registrar Widad Yunis Ganaim was promoted to the magistrate’s court bench in the northern port city of Acre, along with court registrars Rabia Jabali and Ya’akov Solomon.