The Battle for the Top of the State Attorney's Office: Levin's New Legal Struggle
The Labor Court must decide whether Justice Minister Yariv Levin's reform regarding State Attorney's Office tenders will be implemented. The plan introduces mandatory screening tests for the first time, sparking a dispute between the ministry and the prosecutors' union. Key tenders, including the Director of the High Court of Justice (Bagatz) Department, remain frozen.
Is this the next confrontation between Minister Levin and the judicial system? In July 2025, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin and his ministry's Director General, Itamar Donenfeld, decided to establish a team comprising representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Civil Service Commission, and the State Attorney's Office to re-examine the appointment process for senior prosecutor positions. This decision follows up on a 2021 agreement between the state, the Attorneys' Organization, and the Commission, which had not yet been implemented.
According to the pilot program, attorneys competing in tenders will be required for the first time to pass screening tests and an evaluation by an employment institute. Levin and the Director General argue that these measures will reduce the influence of extraneous considerations. Concurrently, Donenfeld has frozen several tenders within the State Attorney's Office to incorporate them into the pilot, most notably the position of Director of the High Court of Justice (Bagatz) Department.
The Labor Court is now tasked with resolving the dispute. Last year, the Attorneys' Workers' Committee filed a lawsuit, claiming that the 2021 agreements did not authorize the freezing of tenders and that the deadline for implementing the reform expired in 2023. Conversely, the ministry's Director General maintains that these changes will "strengthen public trust in the process." For years, there has been criticism regarding the integrity of the organization's tender management, including allegations of cronyism.
State Attorney Amit Aisman initially supported the move, appointing his Deputy for Civil Affairs, Eitan Lederer, as his representative on the committee. However, in May, Donenfeld informed the court of "gaps" in the process, stemming from his desire to expand the pilot program, which met with opposition from Aisman. The Attorneys' Organization claims that Donenfeld is attempting to pressure Aisman by expanding the scope of the pilot beyond original agreements. Both parties have submitted their final arguments, and the case awaits a court ruling.
