Coalition passes law limiting bar association’s control of its finances

Organization’s chief, opposition lawmakers denounce legislation as justice minister’s revenge for refusal to back his picks for Supreme Court, amid judicial overhaul fight

Amit Becher, the head of the Israel Bar Association, attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on December 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
Amit Becher, the head of the Israel Bar Association, attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on December 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Coalition lawmakers passed into law Wednesday a bill enabling the justice minister and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to determine, in part, how the Israel Bar Association may use its own funds.

The law, initiated by MK Hanoch Milwidsky of the ruling Likud party, was approved 52-45 in its second and third readings and thus became law. It also hands the justice minister authority to set the bar association’s membership fees, which currently stand at approximately NIS 1,000 ($280) annually for established lawyers.

Opposition lawmakers and the head of the bar association panned the legislation as arising from what they said was Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s desire to get revenge for the association not backing his picks for the Supreme Court.

It came against the backdrop of Levin’s vision for sweeping judicial system overhaul that supporters say is needed to rein in overreaching courts, but that critics slam as dangerously eroding Israel’s democracy.

Levin, a lawyer by profession, said the bar association law would “finally put an end to the exorbitant payments the bar association takes every year from the lawyer community, and enable each district to determine its own priorities.”

“This is another important change on the way to rectifying the judicial system,” he said.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin attends a hearing of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, January 21, 2025. Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“The law against the bar association that was passed by the Knesset tonight is part of the campaign of destruction against the judicial system and gatekeepers,” Amit Becher, the head of the Israel Bar Association, said in response to the bill passing.

Becher charged that “the legislative process was accompanied by attempts to intimidate and blackmail the bar association and me, so we would enable the thwarting of the selection of a Supreme Court president and allow the selection of judges Levin wants.”

Levin has waged a 15-month battle — since the previous chief justice retired –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 and has a majority in favor of his appointment in the Judicial Selection Committee, but Levin has adamantly refused to call a vote.

The Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, has given Levin until Sunday to call a vote on a new chief justice.

Sponsoring the bar association bill, Milwidsky has argued that an agency that collects obligatory membership dues must have those funds supervised and denies that the law interferes politically with the workings of the bar association.

Addressing the Knesset, Milwidsky said: “Reducing the membership fees for the bar association will require the association to invest the money it collects from lawyers for the purposes for which it was established.”

During the plenum session on the bill, opposition Labor MK Gilad Kariv described it as emblematic of how the government behaves.

“A vengeful coalition, a government of settling scores,” he said.

Likud MK Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky in a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, November 25, 2024. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, who has consistently criticized the bill, posted to X that it is “revenge on the bar association that it didn’t agree with Yariv Levin on his candidates for the Supreme Court.”

In November, Becher told The Times of Israel that Levin had sent him a message saying the bill would be dropped if he cooperated with his demands.

On Thursday, Levin sent a letter calling on Amit, who is the acting Supreme Court president, to withdraw his candidacy to be permanent chief justice, citing reports claiming he oversaw cases in which he had a conflict of interest.

“I will continue to do everything I can to ensure the selection of the Supreme Court president will only be done after a probe into the claims is completed,” Levin wrote to Amit.

Acting Supreme Court President Justice Isaac Amit at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, November 14, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Amit responded: “I have no intention to surrender to the organized smear campaign that has recently been led against me, the entire purpose of which is to thwart my appointment as Supreme Court president and harm public trust in the judicial branch.”

Amit also stressed that detailed responses “have been sent or will be sent” addressing the reported allegations, “which will disapprove each one of them.”

The judicial overhaul, which the government began working on in early 2023, was met with months of mass protests and eventually put on hold, then dropped from the agenda when war broke out in October of that year when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Levin has recently said he intends to revive the judicial overhaul process, and has unveiled a softened version that nevertheless has been panned by critics of the government.

Most Popular
read more: