Bar association elections are usually unremarkable. And bar elections in Israel are no exception. In fact, the last time the Israel Bar Association held an election, in 2019, only 28.5% of its members voted.
But this year was different. Because of the national tensions surrounding the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, interest in the contest was high. This was so particularly since the IBA has a role in the selection of judges that is at the heart of the contested overhaul plan. As a result, a record 50.8% of the eligible IBA members voted in the election. Lines of attorney voters on election day were so long that polling station hours were extended twice to accommodate voters.
Judicial overhaul opponent Amit Becher won the race by a landslide, with more than 70% of the votes. He also gained a majority in the IBA’s National Council, which elects the association’s two representatives on Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee. The result was a stunning victory for those opposed to the government’s judicial overhaul plan. But the story doesn’t end there.
Faced with the double whammy of a botched Knesset vote for the Judicial Selection Committee two weeks ago, which resulted in the unexpected election of one anti-overhaul Knesset member to the committee and deferral of the vote on the second member, and the IBA vote that further supported the anti-overhaul camp, the Netanyahu government wants to change the rules.
Starting with a vote in the government’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation, the Netanyahu government is seeking to gut the Israel Bar Association and turn it into a purely voluntary representative body for lawyers. The Ministerial Committee is sending legislation to the Knesset to strip the IBA of administrative responsibility for the admission of Israel’s attorneys to the bar and authority for granting them licenses to practice law.
Instead, the regulatory and administrative functions governing Israel’s 77,000 lawyers would be transferred to a new politically affiliated council to be appointed by the governing coalition. The original bill also included a clause to remove the IBA representatives from the Judicial Selection Committee and from other committees responsible for electing judges to religious courts.
These developments are significant. But the implications of efforts to denigrate the IBA took on elevated importance following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement in last week’s interview with The Wall Street Journal that he was shelving the “override clause” in his government’s wide-ranging judicial overhaul plan but intends to proceed with plans to remake the Judicial Selection Committee. In describing the likely changes to the committee, Netanyahu said, “It’s not going to be the original structure,” but did not offer details.
The Israel Bar Association serves an important role and has done so independently of government involvement and influence. That shouldn’t change. Efforts to neuter the IBA and to remove independent members of the bar from the judicial selection process — and to replace them with government-appointed puppets — is a mistake. We hope that reason and good judgment overcome the irresponsible abuse of power being pursued by those currently in control to change the rules to suit their agenda. ■