{"id":519943,"date":"2026-07-01T13:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/519943\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:03:13","slug":"high-court-halts-michael-rabellos-appointment-pending-final-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/519943\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court halts Michael Rabello’s appointment pending final ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Justice froze attorney Michael Rabello\u2019s<\/a> entry into office as state comptroller on Wednesday, as it considers petitions seeking to overturn the Knesset vote that elected him.<\/p>\n

The interim order came just days before Rabello was due to begin his term.<\/p>\n

The decision, signed by Supreme Court<\/a> President Isaac Amit, Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, and Justice Dafna Barak-Erez, stressed that the freeze was intended to allow the legal process to be completed and a final ruling issued as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Rabello was elected on June 3 after a disputed two-round Knesset vote. In the first round, retired Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron received 60 votes, and Rabello received 57, leaving both candidates short of the required 61-vote majority.<\/p>\n

A second round was then held. Opposition lawmakers alleged that coalition MKs had been asked to photograph or film their ballots<\/a> behind the curtain, despite the requirement that the state comptroller be elected by secret ballot. The vote was halted and restarted, after which Rabello defeated Elron 61-57.<\/p>\n

\"AttorneyAttorney Ilan Bombach arrives for a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on petitions seeking to overturn the election of attorney Michael Rabello as State Comptroller, June 28, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG\/FLASH90)Court previously proposed Knesset hold new vote to solve dispute<\/p>\n

A series of petitions followed, including from Yesh Atid and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. The petitioners argued that documenting votes turned the secret ballot into a loyalty test and could have prevented MKs from voting freely.<\/p>\n

The court previously proposed that the Knesset hold a new vote in order to resolve the dispute. After Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejected that proposal, the court issued a conditional order requiring the Knesset, Rabello, Likud, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explain why the result should not be annulled.<\/p>\n

Rabello, the Knesset, Likud, and Netanyahu have opposed the petitions. They have argued that there was no proof that MKs were instructed or coerced to document their ballots, and that no explicit rule barred lawmakers from voluntarily recording their own vote.<\/p>\n

Rabello has also rejected claims that his longstanding professional ties to Netanyahu, Likud, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, and ministers should disqualify him from the role. He has argued that any specific conflict of interest can be addressed through an arrangement once he enters office.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s conditional order, however, focused on the integrity of the vote itself rather than on Rabello\u2019s eligibility.<\/p>\n

Yair Lapid welcomes decision<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Yair Lapid<\/a>, whose Yesh Atid faction is among the petitioners, welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the High Court\u2019s decision to freeze the appointment of the state comptroller,\u201d Lapid said. \u201cAs we wrote in the petition we filed on the matter, these elections were contaminated, and Netanyahu\u2019s private attorney cannot be appointed to the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Movement for Quality Government said that it welcomed the order halting Rabello\u2019s entry into office, calling the selection \u201can appointment born in sin\u201d that passed through \u201can unlawful vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization said Rabello should withdraw his candidacy himself, but added that it trusted the court to issue a ruling safeguarding the rule of law and the public interest in the State Comptroller\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Keshet Neev contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court of Justice froze attorney Michael Rabello\u2019s entry into office as state comptroller on Wednesday, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,835,192170,220597,43,220567,61135,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-519943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-high-court-of-justice","tag-isaac-amit","tag-michael-rabello","tag-news","tag-noam-sohlberg","tag-state-comptroller","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}