Israel moves ahead with handing Bar Association's powers to gov't body

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy meet as part of the General Assembly meeting for the Knesset’s summer term opening, in Jerusalem on May 1, 2023 [Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli Knesset yesterday advanced a bill to strip the Bar Association of most of its powers and hand them to a government-appointed body.

Kan quoted official sources as saying that the draft law would replace the Bar Association with a new political body, the head of which would be appointed by the country’s justice minister.

The sources added that the bill, which was proposed by Likud Knesset member Hanoch Milwidsky, was backed by ”50 Knesset members, while 43 others had voted against it.”

The Times of Israel reported that “the bill, which is backed by the government, would remove the bar’s licensing authority, its ability to sanction lawyers for misconduct, and its representation on the committee that selects judges, effectively voiding its powers.”

This forms part of the coalition government’s planned judicial overhaul, which critics have warned will bring an end to democracy in the occupation state.

READ: Islamic Jihad: Israel concealing its losses in Jenin

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.