This morning, Israel’s Knesset passed a law that would make the judiciary subservient to the government. Because of the nature of Israel’s unicameral government system, the judiciary is the only real check on the government’s power. For this reason, it is difficult to overstate just the significance of this moment. NIF’s flagship grantee, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Israel’s version of the ACLU, is already in the process of petitioning Israel’s Supreme Court to oppose this law.

Within the span of a week, Netanyahu has fired the chief of his internal security service (the Shin Bet), and his Justice Minister began the process of ousting his Attorney General. The goal in each case is for a slim majority of elected officials to acquire power over democracy’s gatekeepers. In the case of this bill, those gatekeepers are Supreme Court Justices. The bill, which was debated overnight in the Knesset, fundamentally changes the makeup of the committee to select judges to give the Netanyahu coalition a most significant power: the ability to appoint the very judges meant to hold them to account.

• The civics: Israel’s system of balance of powers is weak to begin with. Israel does not have a formal written constitution that holds judges to certain fundamental principles. Israel does not have a federated system of government that diffuses the power of appointing judges (i.e. there are no ‘state’-level judges, they are all chosen at the governmental level). Israel does not have multiple houses of government that serve to distribute power, and push back against the political appointment of judges by the executive. If a government controls a mere 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, it controls both the legislature and the executive. This law will give a bare majority (61) the power to select virtually every judge in Israel. It would cancel what remains of the separation of powers in Israel.
• The change: Currently, the committee is made up of a balance between politicians and legal professionals, where the legal professionals hold a 1-seat majority. The new bill would replace two professionally appointed members with two lawyers selected by politicians, ensuring that at least one would vote with the coalition. This single seat transforms the committee from a professional and independent commission into a body that is entirely political.

• The timing: This law will go into effect only after the next general election. But Justice Minister Yariv Levin has already said he will prevent judges from being named until then. This will leave Israel’s top court without a full bench (a mere 11 out of 15)—and therefore much slower—at a time when much of its work is highly sensitive, dealing with the nature of Israel’s system of government itself.
• Current cases coming before the court for review: (1) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Shin Bet security service head Ronen Bar; (2) the reappointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister; (3) a law changing how the judicial ombudsman is selected; (4) petitions against the proposed dismissal of the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara’s (5) and, as of today, the law on the reconfiguration of the judicial selection committee.

NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch: “By now we know how the autocratic populist machine operates: Divide the people between the ‘people’ and the ‘elite’, crush state institutions, fire the democratic gatekeepers,  appoint people based on their personal loyalty to the regime, and run a government based on petty corruption. In Israel, as in the U.S., this machine serves one man and his movement. In Israel, this piece of legislation is a major stepping stone in this bleak direction. And so today, we are counting on, standing with, and supporting Israelis who are throwing sand in the gears of this machine, and standing up for the values we believe in: democracy, equality, and the institutions that protect them.

Director of NIF in Israel, Mickey Gitzin: “We are at the moment in which Israel will be defined. This is not the time for business as usual. All of these things—the firings, the legislation—are being challenged in the Supreme Court. Yet this government is on record as saying it is prepared to defy those rulings. The moment the Court rules this legislation—or any other government decision to eliminate democratic gatekeepers—as unconstitutional or illegal and Netanyahu and his allies refuse to follow its ruling, the police, the Shin Bet, and even the army will need to decide who they obey. This not only brings massive chaos, it pushes us out of the State of Israel we know and into the State of Netanyahu. Will we continue to have independent institutions? We don’t know. In this constitutional crisis, something’s got to give.”

Israeli Attorney General Gilah Baharav Miara: This law “casts a heavy political shadow over the judicial system and undermines its professionalism, independence, and ability to hold the government accountable.”

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Organizing around this bill and other elements of the judicial overhaul:

• NIF flagship grantee, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, will lead the legal battle against this law in Israel’s Supreme Court.
• Mehazkim, a digital movement working to promote the values and ideas of the Israeli left through effective digital campaigns and Standing Together, a progressive grassroots movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, are helping mobilize Israelis across the country and online.
• The Forum of Academic Lecturers, The Berl Katznelson Foundation, IDEA—The Center for Liberal Democracy, and Zulat, are all educating the Israeli public in various ways about the threats to liberal democracy that this bill and Netanyahu’s government pose.
• A variety of NIF-funded organizations are a part of The Civil Society Protection Hub, a network established when protests over the judicial overhaul began back in 2023. The Hub is a network that offers activists support, whether they were attacked by the police at protests, by right-wing organizations online, or targeted by the government with smear campaigns. The Hub can help activists and organizations with anything from legal aid to crisis communications to psychological support.
• The New Israel Fund tracks anti-democratic legislation. You can find the most up-to-date version of our tracking here.