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Law To Neutralize Legal Counsels in Government Ministries: Seeks Subordination to the Political Echelon

  • Written By: Adv. Nili Aleksandrowicz, Legal Consultant: Adv. Eitay Mack

>> Read the full position paper in pdf

On 6 July 2025, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a private member‘s bill submitted by Likud MK Avichay Boaron aimed at seriously infringing on the independence of legal counsels in government ministries and transform them from gatekeepers into the yes-men of ministers.

The role of these legal counsels is crucially important, as they are tasked with ensuring the legality of state actions and protecting the public interest. As part of the regime revolution and efforts to steer the country in the direction of an authoritarian model devoid of checks and balances, the government has in recent years taken steps aimed at undermining their independence.

Contrary to its title, the proposed Bill on Independence of Legal Counsels in Government Ministries: Status and Powers-2025 aims to weaken and subordinate them to the political echelon. The bill poses the following dangers:

• Politicization of the job due to subordination to the ministry’s director general. According to the bill, a ministry‘s legal counsel will no longer be subordinate to the Attorney General but rather to the ministry’s director general. This means that legal counsels will be subordinate to a political figure, and indirectly, to the minister, thereby undermining their ability to serve as gatekeepers preventing illegal policies and decisions.
• The minister may promote primary or secondary legislation contrary to a legal counsel’s position. The bill requires legal counsels to publish draft legislation if instructed by the minister, thus emasculating their key power to ensure that ministry legislation complies with legal requirements and constrictions.

• The State Attorney’s Office will be compelled to represent the legal counsel’s position in court. The bill obligates “state representatives in legal proceedings” (that is, the SAO) to present the legal counsel’s position as that of the ministry. Since the legal counsel will no longer be a professional and independent figure but will be dependent on the political echelon, the SAO will be forced to represent potentially political and unlawful positions.
• Weakening the legal counseling system. In case of a disagreement between legal counsels regarding the publication of draft legislation, the decision will fall to the government, which is a political body lacking the necessary competence to resolve professional-legal disputes.

In contrast, Zulat proposes a comprehensive amendment to the Government Law aimed at preserving the independence of legal counsels and preventing the politicization of this vital role. According to Zulat’s proposal, the opinion of legal counsels will remain binding, they will be appointed through a tender process, and limitations will be set on unregulated external consultation and on the termination of their tenure.

Ensuring the independence of the legal counsels of government ministries calls for categorically rejecting MK Boaron’s bill. Adopting Zulat’s alternative proposal will ensure the preservation of the rule of law and good governance, democratic principles, and the most basic civil rights.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.