High Court Voids Netanyahu Lawyer's State Comptroller Appointment, Orders Revote Over Secret-Ballot Violation

On July 2, 2026, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the Knesset to hold a new vote on Michael Rabello's appointment as State Comptroller — the official legally mandated to audit government conduct on October 7 — after ruling the original vote invalid. The Court found that several Likud lawmakers had photographed their supposedly secret ballots with mobile phones during the vote, violating the requirement for a secret ballot in comptroller elections. The ruling followed petitions filed by opposition and watchdog groups who had objected to Netanyahu appointing his own former personal defense attorney to the oversight post central to October 7 accountability. Some senior coalition figures reportedly floated having Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana delay or avoid the court-ordered revote, while several Likud members called for the ruling to be ignored outright — feeding into the broader institutional standoff between the government and judiciary that has defined Israel's 2026 accountability crisis.