Bill giving justice minister power over Bar Association’s fees clears first reading
Association’s chief has accused Levin of using legislation to blackmail him into having members vote to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices
A bill that would hand the justice minister the authority to set the Israel Bar Association’s membership fees cleared its first plenum reading on Monday, with Knesset lawmakers voting 55-53 to advance the legislation.
Israel Bar Association chief Amit Becher has accused Justice Minister Yariv Levin of using the bill to blackmail him into having the bar’s representatives on the Judicial Selection Committee vote for Levin’s candidates for Supreme Court roles.
He told The Times of Israel last month that Levin had sent him a message saying the bill would be dropped if he cooperated with his demands.
Levin has waged a yearlong battle against the appointment of Isaac 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 greater government control over the judiciary and take it in a more conservative direction. Amit would get the role under the traditional seniority system.
Opposition lawmakers objected to the government pushing the legislation amid the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and just days after a fragile ceasefire took effect with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Knesset discussion on Monday evening took place as Hezbollah launched two mortars at an Israeli military position in the Mount Dov area, in the first fire from Lebanon since the truce began on Wednesday.
Ynet news reported that Labor MK Gilad Kariv was outraged that Defense Minister Israel Katz was present at the plenum debate and “seemingly disconnected from the incident.”
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.”
During the bill’s preliminary reading in the Knesset in November, Levin asked “what justification” there was for charging attorneys NIS 966 ($258) a year.
The IBA has some 77,000 members, giving it a hefty budget of over NIS 74 million ($19.7 million) from membership dues alone.
Critics have claimed that the Bar Association bill is part of a wider effort to resurrect the contentious judicial overhaul plan.
The bill, proposed by Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, will now go back to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation for discussion before its second and third readings.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
