Bar Association head, MKs ousted from stormy hearing on bill linked to judiciary fight
Amit Becher removed from 2nd Knesset meet in days after calling Likud MK a ‘populist’; panel advances bill on reforming IBA seen as part of struggle over future Supreme Court picks
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Israel Bar Association (IBA) head Amit Becher was removed from a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for the second time in less than a week on Monday after locking horns with Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, in a tiff linked to the government’s efforts to appoint Supreme Court justices of its choosing.
Opposition lawmakers were also removed after shouting matches with coalition MKs.
Becher, a vocal opponent of the government’s now largely shelved judicial overhaul, was expelled from the heated discussion after calling Milwidsky — the sponsor of a bill that would hand Justice Minister Yariv Levin the authority to set IBA membership fees — a “populist” and rebuffing committee chairman Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman’s demand that he apologize for his language.
During a previous discussion of the bill last Wednesday, Becher was removed on three separate occasions, one of them after accusing Milwidsky’s Likud party of lying about his organization’s budget, sparking a shouting match across the room.
Milwidsky, against whom a complaint was filed in an IBA ethics committee in 2021, last year promoted a separate bill that would have taken away most of the association’s powers.
Becher recently accused Levin of using the current bill to blackmail him into having the bar’s representatives vote in favor of appointing Supreme Court justices that he supports.
שידור חוזר: ראש לשכת עורכי הדין, עו"ד עמית בכר הוצא מוועדת החוקה על ידי היו"ר שמחה רוטמן. הסיבה: כינה את ח"כ חנוך מילביצקי "פופוליסט" ובחר שלא להתנצל@BecherAmit@Israel_Bar1@rothmar@hanochmilwidsky @KElharrar https://t.co/Cgw4HqNj6x pic.twitter.com/3zCXsy7eDi
— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) November 25, 2024
“Levin sent me official representatives on his behalf who made clear that if the Israel Bar Association would cooperate with him in the Judicial Selection Committee to thwart the appointment of Isaac Amit as Supreme Court president and appoint justices to the Supreme Court whom Levin backs, the bill on membership dues would be dropped along with other legislation that would harm the Israel Bar Association,” Becher told The Times of Israel earlier this month.
Arguing in favor of the bill, Levin has claimed that the IBA and its leadership engage in behavior “in complete opposition to the interests of the lawyers and the overall public interest,” and alleged that the organization was using membership fees to fund luxury getaways “in wartime under the guise of professional training.”
Speaking with The Times of Israel on Monday, a Likud insider involved in drafting the legislation insisted that the bill was necessary because the Bar Association is a “corrupt body” with “no transparency” that is largely unrepresentative of the majority of attorneys.
“Why not allow lawyers to choose voluntarily if they want to pay dues or not?” the insider asked, adding that being a lawyer “is the only occupation in the State of Israel where you are mandated to be a member” of a professional guild.
Before Becher was expelled from the committee hearing, Likud MK Moshe Saada accused him of politicizing his organization, prompting the IBA chief to ask him if he believed supporting the hostages was political.
Addressing the committee, Becher argued that there was “nothing I am more proud of” than his decision to join the Histadrut’s nationwide strike in September over the government’s failure to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
A number of opposition lawmakers were also expelled from the room after protesting that the hostage families were not given more time to address the committee.
“We will not allow any discussion while the kidnapped are being abandoned in Gaza,” declared Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich. “God forbid, I will not use physical violence, but there will be no discussion in this committee.”
“You’re an absolute loser,” fellow Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak yelled at Rothman, following the ejection of the protesting lawmakers, including Labor’s Naama Lazimi, who was removed by Knesset ushers.
Beliak was removed as well.
At the end of the hearing, the committee voted to approve a modified version of the bill for the first of three readings in the Knesset plenum necessary for it to become law.
The amended proposal would limit the use of membership fees to only paying for the Bar Association’s core activities rather than so-called “discretionary activities.” It would also halve the fee paid by attorneys serving in the IDF reserves.
The legislation, as currently drafted, no longer gives the justice minister the authority to set IBA membership fees — and further discussion of external supervision of IBA finances will be held in abeyance until after it passes its first reading.
The new overhaul
Critics have claimed that the Bar Association bill is part of a wider effort to resurrect the contentious judicial overhaul plan.
Some coalition lawmakers have in recent months been calling on Levin to relaunch the wide-ranging legislative effort to sideline the judiciary, with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi going so far as to assert on Sunday that the government has the right to carry out “regime change” in Israel and do away with long-established norms and procedures, since it was elected by the public.
In additional comments made to ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama, Karhi contended that the High Court of Justice “should be abolished” and replaced by a new judicial court “whose powers would be defined by the Knesset” and that would not “gnaw away at the foundations of democracy.”
Levin himself is reportedly considering introducing legislation that would effectively grant the coalition the power to determine the identity of the next president of the Supreme Court, while Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs has said that the coalition plans to pass legislation to this effect before shelving the remainder of its divisive judicial agenda.
Speaking with The Times of Israel last month, Constitution Committee chair Rothman, one of the architects of the overhaul, said that this legislation will become law “the second there is political will in the coalition to pass it.”
The coalition is currently also pursuing legislation to transfer authority to appoint the state ombudsman for judges to the Knesset, giving lawmakers a greater say in how the justice system is run, and making an effort to cut over two dozen positions on court benches around the country through intervention in the judiciary’s budget.
