{"id":207607,"date":"2026-07-15T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/207607\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:04:08","slug":"israel-land-authority-head-yehuda-eliyahus-appointment-canceled-by-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/207607\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Land Authority head Yehuda Eliyahu’s appointment canceled by High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Justice canceled Yehuda Eliyahu\u2019s appointment<\/a> as head of the Israel Land Authority on Wednesday, setting aside both the government\u2019s decision to appoint him and the search committee\u2019s recommendation that preceded it.<\/p>\n

The ruling came after all parties, including the government and Eliyahu, accepted a framework proposed by Justices Yael Willner, Ofer Grosskopf, and Khaled Kabub during a hearing earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The Israel Land Authority is the state body responsible for managing most of the land in Israel. Its responsibilities include allocating and marketing land for housing, employment, public needs, and other uses, as well as advancing planning and administering land rights.<\/p>\n

The court stressed the undisputed \u201chigh degree of connection\u201d between Eliyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich<\/a>, one of the ministers behind his appointment.<\/p>\n

Under established case law, the judges said, a candidate with such a connection must demonstrate special qualifications that give him a \u201csubstantial relevant advantage\u201d over candidates without a similar affiliation.<\/p>\n

\"(left(left to right) Sagi Hadaril, Yehuda Eliyahu, Yonatan Kuznitz, Bezalel Smotrich, and Haim Katz. June 14, 2026. (credit: Courtesy Moetza Karnei Shomron )Selection process did not establish exceptional qualifications<\/p>\n

The petitions did not center on whether Eliyahu was qualified for the position in general, but on whether the selection process had properly established that he possessed the exceptional qualifications required to overcome that connection.<\/p>\n

During the hearing last week, the judges questioned whether Eliyahu\u2019s scores showed a sufficiently clear advantage over the other finalists and why he alone had been allowed to provide additional information about his qualifications after the committee initially considered recommending three candidates.<\/p>\n

The government approved Eliyahu\u2019s appointment on May 4, following the search committee\u2019s recommendation on April 23. The appointment was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>, Smotrich, and Housing and Construction Minister Haim Katz.<\/p>\n

Search committee to be reconvened to evaluate candidates<\/p>\n

Under Wednesday\u2019s judgment, two members of the five-person search committee – Finance Ministry<\/a> Budget Commissioner Maharan Frozenfar and Prof. Idit Sohlberg – will be replaced. The court stressed that the decision to replace them should not be understood as criticism of either member.<\/p>\n

The reconstituted committee will interview Eliyahu and the two other candidates who received the highest overall scores. It may request any documents or information required to evaluate them, provided that it maintains complete equality between the candidates.<\/p>\n

The committee may also invite additional candidates for interviews before submitting a new recommendation to the appointing ministers.<\/p>\n

Eliyahu is not disqualified from competing for the permanent position again. What has been canceled is his appointment and the process that produced it.<\/p>\n

An acting director will be appointed under the applicable Civil Service rules until the renewed process is completed. The ruling also does not bar Eliyahu from being considered for that temporary appointment.<\/p>\n

His current tenure as head of the authority will formally end on July 22, even if an acting director has not been appointed by then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court of Justice canceled Yehuda Eliyahu\u2019s appointment as head of the Israel Land Authority on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[41,1412,15657,14666,37,50015],"class_list":["post-207607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-haim-katz","tag-high-court-of-justice","tag-israel","tag-israel-land-authority"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116923195003552550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}