The bill would give the Justice Minister the authority to set the amount of the annual membership fee instead of IBA’s national council.
The coalition passed a preliminary vote on a controversial bill aimed at weakening the Israel Bar Association (IBA) on Wednesday.
The bill, authored by MK Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud), gives the justice minister the authority to set the amount of the annual membership fee instead of IBA’s national council, which currently enjoys that authority.
Milwidsky, along with Justice Minister MK Yariv Levin (Likud), argued that the IBA should not have the power to set a fee that lawyers were forced to pay to practice their profession.
According to the law’s explanatory section, this will solve the problem of the “lack of transparency of a body whose budget is approximately NIS 100 million.”
However, several MKs from the opposition argued that the bill’s real purpose was to serve as a threat against the IBA. It is an attempt to force the IBA’s two members in the Judicial Selection Committee to support Levin’s candidate for an upcoming vote to appoint the next High Court chief justice, they said.
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https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-828954
