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Israel Bar Association under siege

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The appointment of Yitzhak Amin as a permanent president of the Supreme Court on Sunday the moment of the height of the Association of Lawyers in Israel recently. Not only did the representatives of the association in the Judicial Selection Committee, ADV. Unit like manovic and ADV. Mohamed Namneh, voting for the benefit of appointment, but in the period before the vote, the association was at the forefront of the opposition of the Minister of Justice Yarif Levin, who seeks to cancel the seniority method, which is an agreement with the longest length Now admit it.

However, despite the completion, the Israel Bar Association, which is about 90,000 lawyers, faces a series of unprecedented threats to their situation, and attempts to weaken them. These include at least three legislative operations, one of which has become a law in The Knesateet recently, with the two other acknowledgment soon.

“The recent moves are a reaction to our insistence on not lending our hand to politicize the choice of judges, and to stand by the International Agency for Migration,” says IBA Head Adv. Amit Buscher. “Without our position, it was not possible to appoint a president in the Supreme Court, and the judges would not be chosen.”

In fact, the IBA line on the “Reform of Governance” announced by the Minister of Justice in January 2023 was the target of the leaders of reform, headed by Levin and MK Simcha Rothman (the Zionist Domestic Party), the head of the Knesateet Constitution and the Law and Justice Committee.

Former IBA president, ADV. Avi Hemi, led the same line, but was forced to resign at the end of January 2023 after a report issued by journalist Ayala Hason on alleged sexual misconduct. His resignation paved the way for the election of Bishr as head of the financial session Agency in June 2023.

Direct confrontation

Becher, who was also recognized by the protest movement against government reform plans, was elected by 73 % of IBA members, and with a strong majority of the Power National Assembly. Shortly after his election, Kunesset gave a first reading of a draft law on MK Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud), with the support of the coalition, to solve IBA in its current form and replace it with a “lawyer council” controlled by the ruling coalition and the Minister of Justice.

This bill was not promoted at first due to talks on the judicial reform program under the auspices of President Herzog, then due to the outbreak of the war. However, the relationships between IBA, Levin and Rothman have deteriorated to a direct confrontation.







Only last week, a draft law was passed to reduce the IBA budget. Under the new law, the membership fees that IBA will be allowed to impose fees on its members, which represent 70 % of its annual budget of 90 million NIS, by 20 %. This is despite the fact that IBA’s 2025 budget has already been approved and obligations have been made on the basis.

From next year, IBA will be prevented from using its membership fees to finance its general activity, including providing opinions in the legislative process, and conducting advanced professional training courses. It can be funded by voluntary payments, but the use of these payments will be conditional on the approval of IBA provinces, some of whom sympathize with the government.

The law that limits the IBA budget was another special bill sponsored by MK Milwidsky with alliance support. IBA said it was an attempt to blackmail her because of her position against Levin’s movements to change the formation and procedures of the Judicial Selection Committee. Milwyski said that, regarding, the first step was to make IBA voluntary membership, thus canceling its position as a representative of all lawyers in Israel. (Under the Law of the Bar Association of 1961, IBA membership is currently compulsory for the practice of the law in Israel.) It appears that the return of the “Bar Council” bill is a matter of time.

IBA is expected to submit the Supreme Court of Justice in a short time against the law that limits its budget. It is expected that it will argue that the law aims to take revenge on its opposition to Levin’s plans for the judicial selection committee, that it fills the democratic decision by Israeli lawyers and changes the rules of the game from one minute to another, and that it destroys the independence of IBA. The petition also aims to delay the implementation of the law, so that, if the law is supported, IBA will gain time to prepare for this possibility.

In addition to seeking the Supreme Court of Justice, IBA has already started preparing financially to reduce its budget. Professional staff headed by the CEO of IBA ADV. Oshrat Taggar will review the budget for the next year, and Beher is expected to include the National Assembly in this process. Employees’ layoffs are also on the agenda, although BERHER stresses that this will be done in consultation with employees.

Meanwhile, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in Knesateet, headed by Roulad, will start promoting the plan launched by Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, and consulted with the entrepreneur and former government minister Isar Tea and the public (accuracy.) Didi Simhi. Under the plan, IBA will not nominate representatives to the Judicial Selection Committee, a strategic goal that Levin and Rutman were working on for a long time. Instead, the Knesset coalition and opposition will choose a lawyer to work in the committee.

If the plan is carried out in the legislation, IBA is expected to submit the Supreme Court of Justice against this law as well. “The story here is not only the exclusion of the association from the committee,” Bishr asserts. “The problem is to politicize the process of choosing the entire judges.”

As if that was not enough, IBA was shot after he passed less than a third of the candidates to qualify as lawyers held in December, the lowest pass rate ever. Although IBA is not responsible for the exam, run by an independent committee that was already appointed by the Ministry of Justice, Levin took advantage of the opportunity to attack.

According to Levity, IBA acted to achieve “sentence failure for exams”. IBA described the accusation as “a mistake and cannot be defended”, but it seems that he still pays the audience’s recognition price with the examination.

Support from senior lawyers

In the face of threats to this, IBA can extract the encouragement from the support he received from the senior profession. ADV says: “In the past two years, the association and its president have made everything possible, in the legal and public arenas, to save this organization.” Deni Toulidino, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ardinast, Ben Nathan, Toledino and Partners, “I am not a member of any of the association’s institutions, but I am convinced that the considerations here are the interest of the public, and not that of the union.”

ADV. “The association must find ways to employ the public, which, with the vast majority of lawyers, voted with her feet against judicial reform, for its reason, to its case. In order to ensure hearing its voice and taking it in Consideration in legislative processes and the appointment of judges. “

Dr. Limour Zeer Gutman, founder and head of the Winner Center for Legal Ethics and Professional Liability at the College of Academic Studies at the College of Administration, calls beer to create a team to manage “the most dangerous crisis in the history of the association.” “The president of the association has the largest majority that I can remember in the National Assembly, and he must recruit the assistance of these elected actors.”

Becher says that IBA is currently promoting the reform that will give new tools to its ethics committees. “On the one hand, there must be fundamental enforcement in clear cases, such as violation of concession or criminal crimes, and at the same time the committees need to give flexible tools such as fines and warnings before inciting the operation, so that the official accusation will not be the only tool.”

It was published by Globes, Israel Business News – En.globes.co.il – on January 29, 2025.

© Copy Publish Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. , 2025.


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