Bar head accuses Levin of legislative blackmail over Supreme Court president appointment
Amit Becher alleges that justice minister promised to drop legislation to hobble IBA if it supported his effort to block the appointment of Isaac Amit as Supreme Court president
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Israel Bar Association leader Amit Becher has accused Justice Minister Yariv Levin of attempting to blackmail him into having the IBA’s representatives vote in favor of appointing Supreme Court justices Levin supports through legislation designed to weaken the association.
Becher’s comments to The Times of Israel come swiftly on the heels of the approval of a bill in a preliminary Knesset reading that would allow the justice minister to determine the rate of IBA membership dues.
“Levin sent to 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 appointing justices to the Supreme Court whom Levin backs, the bill on [IBA] membership dues will be dropped along with other legislation which will harm the Israel Bar Association,” Becher told The Times of Israel.
Levin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Levin has waged a year-long battle against the appointment of Amit, a liberal justice, as the next president of the Supreme Court as part of his judicial overhaul agenda in which he seeks to exert government control over the judiciary and take it in a more conservative direction.
The justice minister refused to call a vote for the appointment of a new Supreme Court president in the Judicial Selection Committee for nearly a year following the retirement of the former president, since he knew that there were enough votes, including those of the two IBA representatives to appoint Amit.
Levin has backed hardline conservative Justice Yosef Elron for president of the court, but likely only has three out of nine votes on the panel for his candidacy.
The Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice ruled in September that Levin was legally obligated to call a vote on appointing a new president as soon as possible, and the justice minister has reluctantly scheduled a vote for November 28.
The legislation to which Becher objected was passed 57-51 in a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum, and would, among other things, transfer the authority to determine IBA membership fees to Levin.
Arguing for the bill, Levin alleged that the IBA and its leadership engage in behavior “in complete opposition to the interests of the lawyers and the overall public interest” and asked “what justification” there is for charging attorneys NIS 966 ($258) a year.
The IBA is “taking advantage of membership fees for a pleasure cruise — in wartime and under the guise of professional training,” Levin told lawmakers.
The IBA has some 77,000 members giving it a hefty budget of over NIS 74 million ($19.7 million) from membership dues alone.
Levin’s comments about the membership fees being too high would appear to indicate his intention, if the legislation passed, to reduce the fees and thus the power and prestige of the IBA.
Becher described the bill as “legislation to take political control of the IBA,” and “no less than attempted blackmail by Justice Minister Yariv Levin who has lost control.”
He pointed out that Levin has also recently tried to reduce the budget for the judiciary.
“Now he is also trying to harm the budget of the Israel Bar Association by a shameless, Mafioso-style demand to vote in accordance with his demands on the Supreme Court president.
“Not only will we not surrender to extortion – the Israel Bar Association will become strengthened and increase its activities for the legal community and in the defense of the independence of the legal system and the selection of judges.”
And Opposition Leader Yair Lapid alleged in response to the approval of the bill, that Levin was “bringing back the coup d’état,” in reference to the justice minister’s judicial overhaul agenda, declaring that “today the ideological descendants of Yigal Amir run the Israeli government.”
Sam Sokol contributed to this article.
