Knesset summer session to focus on Haredi draft, efforts to curb public media

Following a monthlong recess over the Passover holiday and Independence Day, the Knesset began its summer legislative session on Monday, ushering in a surge of activity as lawmakers seek to pass a wide variety of bills whose advancement was halted during the break.

The new session is expected to be marked by fierce arguments over a range of issues from ultra-Orthodox conscription to government to efforts to silence public media outlets and weaken the power of the attorney general.

Here are some of the bills to watch out for over the coming months.

Ultra-Orthodox enlistment

The Knesset’s summer session got off to a rocky start on Tuesday when both of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties said they would boycott votes on coalition legislation on Wednesday, in protest of the government’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, coalition partners have been pushing for the passage of legislation enshrining military exemptions for their community, after the High Court ruled in June last year that the dispensations, in place for decades, were illegal since they were not based in law.

Despite the prime minister’s assurances to his ultra-Orthodox allies, the legislation, angrily referred to by critics as an “evasion law,” has long been held up in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Yuli Edelstein (Likud), has pledged that he will “only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”

Addressing a conference organized by the national-religious broadsheet Makor Rishon on Tuesday, Edelstein said that after exhaustive debate, his committee was “one step away” from drafting a new version of the law.

If the bill fails to pass, or if it passes in a format that does not maintain widespread Haredi exemptions, it could significantly threaten the stability of the coalition.

On Monday evening, UTJ lawmaker Yaakov Asher told Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat that if the military exemptions were not legislated by the end of the summer session, his party would  no longer be able to remain in the government.

UTJ’s exit would not topple the government but it would leave it with a bare 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Rabbinical courts

The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has resumed debating a controversial bill intended to grant state rabbinic courts the power to arbitrate civil proceedings according to religious law if both parties consent.

While its backers say that the measure would allow for “legal pluralism,” critics believe that, if passed, it would significantly harm women.

According to the ITIM nonprofit — which helps Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy — the religious court system, whose judges are all men, “is fundamentally male-oriented, which naturally raises concerns about structural harm to women’s rights, even if unintentional.”

In addition, “religious courts are not bound by the protective laws that the state has enacted to protect workers’ rights,” the group said in a position paper late last year.

Splitting the AG’s role

The coalition is also pushing a variety of bills that critics warn are intended to silence detractors and weaken oversight, including a measure to dilute the powers of the attorney general and create a new criminal prosecution service, putting the government in charge of who heads it.

The bill, which was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, would essentially split off the role of chief prosecutor from the attorney general’s job description, and put it in the hands of a “prosecutor general” who would be nominated by the justice minister and approved by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which is controlled by the coalition.

Opposition parties have denounced the legislation as an effort by the government to influence Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial and weaken the institution of criminal prosecution in general, especially when it comes to suspected political corruption. The coalition has argued, however, that the bill is crucial in ensuring that the head of the criminal prosecution is independent of the government, because the attorney general, as the government’s chief legal adviser, is supposed to also help it achieve its policy goals.

Taxing NGOs, disqualifying candidates

At the same time, lawmakers are also debating legislation that would levy massive taxes on nongovernment organizations funded by foreign governments, and erode their right to file lawsuits in Israeli courts.

The bill, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, would allow the government to tax foreign government donations to domestic nonprofits at a rate of 80 percent, while also stipulating that courts need not consider petitions by groups “primarily financed by a foreign political entity.”

Groups such as B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the New Israel Fund have long been targeted by the right wing and even the political center over their focus on alleged Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians.

While backers argue that the bill would protect civil society from malign foreign influence, critics have said the government has no moral standing to complain about outside actors as two of Netanyahu’s top aides are under investigation for alleged financial ties to Qatar.

During a debate on Monday, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi claimed that the bill was intended “to prevent campaigns to encourage voting in Arab society.”

Tibi noted that the coalition is also currently working to pass a bill “that aims to make it easier to disqualify Arab slates” from running for Knesset.

During a marathon plenum session just before the beginning of the recess, lawmakers voted 22-0 to approve the first reading of a bill to disqualify a candidate or slate of candidates from running in municipal elections if they have denied the existence of the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic, or expressed support for terrorism or armed struggle against Israel.

Cutting judges’ salaries

Another new bill, approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation at the same meeting as the bill splitting the role of the attorney general, would see the formation of a three-member public committee that would determine the salary of the president of Israel, from which all other officials’ salaries would be derived as percentages, in a manner that backers maintain is intended “to create equality between the governmental authorities.”

Critics on both sides of the aisle have contended that the legislation is meant to raise officials’ salaries during wartime, although sponsor Avihai Boaron (Likud) argues that it would actually lead to salary cuts for the highest earners — many of whom are judges.

‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’

While initially withdrawing its backing last year, the coalition recently decided that it would advance legislation placing a police internal affairs unit under the authority of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

The bill to subordinate the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) — which was initially proposed last year by Likud MK Moshe Saada, a former deputy head of the department, and approved in a preliminary reading — had widely been seen as part of a government project aimed at handing politicians the reins over key law enforcement bodies.

Currently, the DIPI operates under the purview of the State Attorney’s Office, a separate organizational unit within the Justice Ministry. The bill would see the department instead report directly to a cabinet minister and come under the supervision of the Justice Ministry’s director general.

The department is currently tasked with investigating suspected crimes committed by police officers and employees of the Shin Bet security agency, and can in certain cases conduct criminal and disciplinary investigations into wrongdoing by civil service employees. Under the new law, the DIPI’s powers would also be expanded to allow probes into state prosecutors.

While the text of the bill states that “the department will be independent and will operate with full freedom of action in the exercise of its professional powers,” critics have argued that the move will neuter the DIPI by putting it under political control.

Controlling ratings data, selling off public broadcasting

The new legislative session is also expected to see a concerted push to advance Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s media overhaul agenda.

Karhi has vowed since taking office more than two years ago to shut down the Kan public broadcaster, putting forward several plans that have all since stalled.

The most recent proposed legislation, part of a larger media overhaul package advocated by Karhi, stipulates that if a private buyer for Kan cannot be found within two years, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely and its intellectual property will revert to the government. The bill passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset in November 2024, but when it later came up for discussion in the Economic Affairs Committee, Bitan said that he “can’t advance this bill for a simple reason — public broadcasting is necessary.”

A similar bill would shutter Army Radio.

In an effort to bypass opposition from Knesset Economic Affairs Committee Chairman David Bitan (Likud), Karhi has proposed establishing a new “media committee,” an idea rejected by Bitan but reportedly supported by Netanyahu.

Bitan has also pledged to freeze work on legislation that would grant the government oversight over television ratings data and force broadcasters to regularly report such data, which Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has argued would violate key constitutional principles, including the right to privacy and freedom of the press.

However, Bitan indicated that he would not hinder two additional bills — one that would compel Kan to justify its decisions to the committee on an annual basis, and another that would give the government direct instead of indirect control over the broadcaster’s budget. These, he said, would be considered by the committee.

Immunity from investigation

Lawmakers may also advance legislation aimed at providing criminal protection to IDF soldiers and members of the intelligence and security communities who provide intelligence without authorization to the prime minister and members of his security cabinet.

Another bill that could also potentially advance is an initiative by firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv strengthening MKs’ parliamentary immunity.

Another bill that has not yet been submitted but that could come up during the current legislative session is a proposal by Likud MK Kallner to establish an alternative probe into the events of October 7, 2023.

On Monday, the government reportedly decided to seek to establish a “special” commission to probe the devastating Hamas-led invasion, but rejected a call from Baharav-Miara for an official state commission of inquiry, which would have the broadest powers.

According to Kallner’s proposal, members of the alternate investigatory body would not be chosen by the president of the Supreme Court — as is the case with a state commission of inquiry — but would instead be appointed by the Knesset.

Asked for comment, Kallner told The Times of Israel that he believes his proposal will advance as a bill during the current legislative session.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.