Supreme Court of Israel
Highest court of the State of Israel
The Supreme Court of Israel (Hebrew: בֵּית הַמִּשְׁפָּט הָעֶלְיוֹן, romanized: Be(i)t HaMishpat HaElyon, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; Arabic: المحكمة العليا, romanized: al-Maḥkama al-‘Ulyā) is the highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court consists of 15 judges appointed by the president of Israel, upon nomination by the Judicial Selection Committee. Once appointed, Judges serve until retirement at the age of 70 unless they resign or are removed from office. The Court is situated in Jerusalem's Givat Ram governmental campus, about half a kilometer from Israel's legislature, the Knesset. By the principle of binding precedent (stare decisis), Supreme Court rulings are binding upon every other court, except itself. Over the years, it has ruled on numerous sensitive issues, some of which relate to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the rights of Arab citizens, and discrimination between Jewish groups in Israel.
When ruling as the High Court of Justice (Hebrew: בֵּית מִשְׁפָּט גָּבוֹהַּ לְצֶדֶק, romanized: Be(i)t Mishpat Gavo'ah LeTzedek, also known as its acronym Bagatz, Hebrew: בג"ץ), the court rules on the legality of decisions of State authorities: government decisions, those of local authorities and other bodies and persons performing public functions under the law, and direct challenges to the constitutionality of laws enacted by the Knesset. The court may review actions by state authorities outside of Israel.
Yitzhak Amit is the president of the Supreme Court since 13 February 2025, with Noam Sohlberg as Deputy President since 10 April 2025.
“Supreme Court of Israel” enters the record as highest court of the State of Israel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Supreme, Court and Israel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q399798. VIAF identifies the subject as 141911350. The Library of Congress control number is n82024264. Authority coordinates are 31.781, 35.204. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025.
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