Right-wing members of Knesset praised the appointment of four Israeli Supreme Court judges on Friday, and especially that of Judge Noam Sohlberg, calling it a “victory of common sense.”

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) extolled Sohlberg’s appointment, calling him an “excellent judge”, who has been targeted for “being a settler with a yarmulke.”

Rivlin pledged to continue supporting diversity in the Supreme Court for the purpose of “regaining the nation’s trust in its judges.”

Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) also praised Sohlberg’s appointment, calling it an “excellent and balanced choice” that promotes pluralism among the country’s judges.

Praise from right-wing MKs came in the wake of the Judicial Appointments Committee naming four new Supreme Court justices on Friday, following a tumultuous week of power struggles and controversy surrounding Israel’s court system.

The newly appointed justices are Jerusalem District Court Judge Noam Sohlberg, dean of Tel Aviv University’s law school Daphne Barak-Erez, Jerusalem District Court Deputy President Zvi Zylbertal, and Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uri Shoham.

All the new justices were voted in unanimously, with the exception of Sohlberg, who was backed by eight of the nine panel members. Shoham was picked to fill in the Supreme Court’s “Mizrahi” slot, in light of recently sounded criticism that the list of possible Supreme Court nominees did not include a judge from Israel’s North-African or Middle Eastern Jewish community.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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