Rabello Elected Israel's State Comptroller During Legal Challenges

JERUSALEM — Michael Rabello was elected as Israel's state comptroller by the Knesset plenum on June 3, 2026. Rabello, who serves as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal attorney, assumed a role that is legally required to be filled by secret ballot.

Coalition MKs were reportedly instructed by Netanyahu’s Likud party to film themselves casting their ballot in the election, a move that prompted multiple petitions to the High Court of Justice challenging the legality of Rabello’s election. The opposition warned the vote was illegal.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the process “fundamentally tainted.” “Soon the Israeli government will not be run like a mafia,” Bennett said. “These were not free votes, but rather extortion and intimidation of Likud MKs who are under the threat of a price tag from the boss.”

Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of his party, citing “the violation of ballot secrecy and after intervention by the Knesset Speaker from the Likud faction against the position of the Knesset’s legal adviser.” The Movement for Quality Government also filed a petition, stating that Rabello’s appointment constituted a severe conflict of interest and was carried out through a process that was “tainted before our eyes, after Knesset members were reportedly required to document their vote in an unlawful manner as a test of loyalty, contrary to the position of the Knesset’s legal adviser.”

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, accused Netanyahu of trying to conceal responsibility for the October 7 attacks. “Only someone who knows the truth and fears it will do everything to conceal their responsibility for October 7, including appointing their personal attorney as state comptroller and preventing a state commission of inquiry,” Eisenkot said. He criticized the election as conducted through a “dictatorial method that challenged Israeli democracy and was led by a prime minister who does not enjoy public trust and sees himself as above the rule of law.”