Knesset passes law overhauling public broadcasting

The Knesset on Thursday ratified a new public broadcasting law that was amended earlier this week to keep the jobs of 430 Israel Broadcasting Authority employees.

Israel’s parliament passed the law with 25 lawmakers approving the legislation and 18 voting against.

Earlier this week the government agreed to defang the bill, which would have left 430 Israel Broadcasting Authority workers jobless, following intense opposition from trade unions and coalition lawmakers.

In negotiations with the Histadrut labor federation, authorities agreed to shelve a clause in a new public broadcasting bill that calls on the state broadcaster to immediately begin slashing NIS 10 million from its budget every month.

The move effectively saves 430 jobs, while the government and the Histadrut settle a long-planned overhaul of the service.

Read: Is Israel’s state broadcaster doomed to be a state mouthpiece?

In addition, authorities agreed to halt any planned future layoffs until the IBA — whose fate remains unclear — is either reorganized or shuttered. Negotiations with the Histadrut will now proceed to determine how many employees will be fired and how many will continue on in the new broadcasting company.

“The legislation allowing for the layoffs will result in the closure of the IBA and would severely damage public broadcasting in Israel,” Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn said Friday.

Multiple unions across Israel, including airport staff, ports and border authorities, carried out strikes Sunday in solidarity with IBA employees, who themselves protested Sunday morning in front of the Knesset. Coalition lawmakers David Biton (Likud) and Roi Folkman (Kulanu) also opposed the legislation and pressured government to amend it, the Haaretz daily reported.

Last year, the Knesset approved legislation to abolish the IBA and replace it with a new public entity. The current staff of some 1,500 is expected to be reduced to some 700.

The bill’s sponsor, then-communications minister Gilad Erdan, explained at the time that the need for the change stemmed from the broadcast authority becoming increasingly unnecessary. Erdan said a new public entity would save money and do away with the unpopular television tax.

The IBA was established in 1948 and held a monopoly on TV and radio broadcasting in Israel until the 1990s.

Since 1965, any Israeli household with a television set was obligated to pay an annual television tax which helped fund the IBA. Today, the tax stands at NIS 345 per year ($90). The IBA strictly enforced this rule, ignoring pleas from TV owners who did not use IBA’s services or were not connected to any television service whatsoever.

In March last year, the Knesset Finance Committee delivered a scathing criticism of the IBA after it became known that the broadcasting authority spent NIS 30 million ($8.6 million) in 2013 on attorney fees in order to chase down missing payments, the Maariv daily reported. The IBA’s TV tax collections in 2013 came to approximately NIS 461 million ($132 million).