This is the interpretive process that I support in the case before us as well. Exemption from the tender obligation according to Article 19 The Appointments Law does not have a general exemption from a competitive process. This is an exemption from the tender obligation according to Article 19 to the same law. No less, but no more. The choice of this interpretation therefore follows a deaf and well-founded interpretive path in other contexts as well.
- This is said without derogating from the fact that I am establishing my attitude Not only on the language of the law. As my colleague the President has clarified, the legislative purpose in this case is decisive, and all this without contradicting the language of the law. And what is the purpose of the Appointments Law? To this we must answer: statehood, stateliness, and again stateliness. The purpose underlying the enactment of this law was to base the public service on the value of stateliness, to establish its professionalism and to distance it from the political arena. These words arise unequivocally from the ruling of this Court with regard to the Appointments Law. Among other things, it was stated in this regard as follows:
"The main purpose of the law is to ensure that appointments in the civil service are made according to criteria of qualifications and suitability for the position, and are not motivated by political affiliation or other irrelevant considerations...
Indeed, the Appointments Law, in its nature and purposes, serves as a cornerstone in the infrastructure of public administration in Israel. Its significance and importance go far beyond the formal arrangements it establishes in relation to the processes of appointments in the civil service. In its essence, it embodies the basic concept of the public service in Israel, as an arm of the government in the implementation of its policies: clean-handed, moral service, and at the same time, built on a high professional and functional level. This combination of the moral element and the element of professional and functional level in the appointment process accompanies the Appointments Law and the arrangements according to it throughout their length and breadth, and it is intertwined with it. According to these foundations, a public service will be built that is appropriate to its essential functions in the system of government in Israel" (High Court of Justice 5657/09 The Movement for Quality Government in Israel v. Government of Israel, paragraphs 14-15 [Nevo] (November 24, 2009)).