Weakening the Role of the Attorney General
Date last advanced: July 15, 2026
Sponsors: MKs Simcha Rothman, Ohad Tal, and Michal Woldiger (Religious Zionism)
- Determines that the attorney general’s rulings on government decisions and ministerial actions are non-binding.
- Empowers ministers to order reports from the attorney general on her official decisions.
- Grants the coalition control over appointing and dismissing the attorney general.
- The law will take effect in January 2027.
- Previous iterations of the bill would have divided the attorney general’s role as the government’s legal advisor, the prosecutor general, and the government’s legal representative into different positions.
For more on the role of the attorney general in Israel’s political system and how the position evolved over the course of the country’s history, see our explainer.
Stripping the Attorney General’s Authority Over Ministerial Legal Advisors
Date last advanced: January 7, 2026
Sponsor: MK Avichai Buaron (Likud)
- Subordinates ministerial legal advisors to their ministries’ directors general (who are appointed by ministers), rather than the attorney general.
- Legal advisors would cease to be independent, authoritative interpreters of the law, with career advancement potentially dependent on appeasement of the ministry’s leadership.
- Having ministerial legal advisors answer to different figures could fragment the state’s legal position, with ministries able to interpret the law differently.
Changing the Appointment Process for the Civil Service Commissioner
Date last advanced: January 7, 2026
Sponsors: MKs Amit Halevi and Ofir Katz (Likud)
- Allows the government to appoint a civil service commissioner without a competitive process that ensures professional qualifications.
- The civil service commissioner oversees appointments to the civil service. This senior official is responsible for ensuring that appointees to the civil service are qualified and are selected based on professional experience rather than political considerations.
- Risks politicizing the civil service commissioner, which would in turn allow for politicized civil-service appointments.
Overhauling Judicial Appointments
An amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary
Date passed: March 27, 2025
Sponsor: Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee
- Changes the makeup of the nine-person judicial selection committee, which appoints all judges in Israel, by replacing the two Israel Bar Association representatives with one attorney selected by the coalition and one by the opposition.
- Supreme Court appointments will no longer require a supermajority of seven votes on the committee, with the threshold lowered to a simple 5/9 majority.
- Supreme Court appointments will require the consent of one coalition and one opposition representative. Lower-court appointments will require the consent of at least one coalition representative, one opposition representative, and one judge.
- The previous committee structure required consensus between the government and legal professionals (including sitting judges). Under the new system, politicians, but not legal professionals, will have a veto over Supreme Court appointments, politicizing the process.
- In the event of two Supreme Court vacancies and the coalition and opposition representatives are unable to agree on candidates, the justice minister can initiate a process to break the deadlock: both sides choose three candidates, out of whom the other side must approve at least one.
- This law will not take effect until the next Knesset.
Abolishing the Reasonableness Standard
An amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary
Date passed: July 24, 2023
Date overturned by the court: January 1, 2024
Sponsor: Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee
- Forbids the High Court from judging decisions or appointments made by ministers or the government by the standard of “reasonableness.”
- The High Court applies the reasonableness standard to block government administrative decisions that are disproportionately based on political or personal interests over public interests. It can not be used to strike down legislation.
- Would significantly curb judicial oversight over the government and remove a key legal tool used to prevent corrupt government decisions.
High Court ruling: Law struck down for violating Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state
Tightening the Requirements for Declaring the Prime Minister Unfit for Office(Incapacitation Bill)
An amendment to Basic Law: The Government
Date passed: March 23, 2023
Date delayed by the court: January 3, 2024
Sponsor: MK Ofir Katz (Likud)
- Requires that the prime minister be mentally or physically incapacitated to the extent that they cannot perform the duties of the office in order to be declared unfit for office.
- Requires that incapacitation be determined by the prime minister or a three-quarters majority of the cabinet.
- If the prime minister does not allow the cabinet to vote on the matter, it passes to the Knesset, where it must garner 80 votes to pass.
- Bars the High Court from hearing petitions pertaining to the prime minister’s fitness, placing the matter entirely in the hands of the government and the Knesset.
*Note: While the Netanyahu government did not frame this bill as a component of its judicial reform package, it is included on the tracker as it impacts the balance of power between branches of government.
High Court ruling: Implementation of law delayed until next Knesset
Sidelining the Israel Bar Association
Date last advanced: July 5, 2023
Sponsor: MK Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud)
- Would remove the Israel Bar Association’s power to license lawyers and its representation on the Judicial Selection Committee.
- Both of these functions would be assumed by a new Lawyers Council, whose chair would be appointed by the justice minister.
- By transferring the IBA’s two seats on the Judicial Selection Committee to a new body aligned with the government, this bill would effectively give the government a five-seat majority on the nine-member committee. The government could then unilaterally select lower-court judges. (Supreme Court appointments require a majority of seven out of nine.)
Blocking Review of Basic Laws
An amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary
Date last advanced: February 21, 2023
Sponsor: Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee
- Blocks the High Court from exercising judicial review over Basic Laws, which can still be passed by a majority of 61 MKs
Eliminating High Court Oversight of Ministerial Appointments (Deri 2 Bill)
An amendment to Basic Law: The Government
Date last advanced: March 21, 2023
Sponsor: MK Moshe Arbel (Shas)
- Blocks the High Court from intervening in or blocking ministerial appointments.
- This law would pave the way for Shas leader Aryeh Deri to return to the cabinet, despite the High Court’s January 2023 ruling that he was ineligible to serve as a minister.
- Prior to the government’s swearing-in, the coalition had passed an amendment to Basic Law: The Government to allow Deri to serve as a minister regardless of his tax fraud conviction (referred to at the time as the Deri law). The High Court nevertheless struck down Deri’s appointment on the basis of unreasonability and estoppel (since Deri had suggested he would quit politics as part of a plea deal).
- Given that this bill, like the original Deri law, is intended to pave the way for Deri to enter the cabinet, it is referred to as Deri 2.
Allowing the Knesset to Bar Judicial Review of Legislation (Override Clause)
Basic Law: Override
Date last advanced: March 13, 2023
Sponsor: MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism)
- Requires the vote of a Supreme Court supermajority of 12 out of 15 judges to strike down legislation.
- Permits a 61-MK Knesset majority to re-legislate laws struck down by a Supreme Court vote.
- Allows the Knesset to attach a notwithstanding clause to legislation passed by a 61-MK majority, which would preemptively bar the High Court from exercising judicial review over that legislation, even if it contravenes a Basic Law.
- Establishes an expiration date of two years into the next Knesset term for a law’s notwithstanding clause, after which the Knesset can vote to extend the law’s immunity indefinitely.
- Constrains judicial review for laws not covered by a notwithstanding clause by requiring the court to find that a law “clearly contradicts” a Basic Law in order to strike it down
Curbing the Authority of Ministerial Legal Advisors
- Would categorize the legal advice of ministries’ legal advisors as non-binding
- Would allow ministers and the government to choose what legal position to present to the courts on behalf of ministries
- Would permit ministers and ministries to carry out policies deemed illegal by ministry legal advisors or the attorney general
Note: Only bills submitted by individual MKs undergo preliminary readings. Bills submitted by the government or a Knesset committee proceed to the first plenum reading after being approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and, if applicable, the sponsoring Knesset committee.