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Judges’ Salaries as Political Weapon

>> Read the full position paper  

Basic Law Bill: Remuneration of Public Officeholders (Legislative Amendments) forms part of a broader series of initiatives aimed at undermining the standing of the judiciary. It seeks to standardize judges’ remuneration with that of other public officeholders, thereby opening the door to cutting their salaries and eliminating the existing constitutional protection against adverse changes to their terms of service. Such a situation could make judges’ economic security vulnerable to political influence and create subtle pressure on judges when ruling on politically sensitive cases.

Similarly, the proposed public committee mechanism for determining remuneration fails to ensure genuine professional independence. Its authority is a priori constrained by the legislature and the political echelon, and it is not required to operate through a transparent process or in accordance with clear constitutional principles. At the same time, equating the remuneration of officeholders across the branches of government disregards the fundamental differences between independent, long-term judicial office and political positions, and may impair the judiciary’s ability to attract highly qualified candidates and preserve its institutional stability.

Beyond these institutional concerns, the position paper argues that raising the issue of judges’ remuneration in the current public climate forms part of a broader narrative aimed at eroding the legitimacy of the judiciary by portraying it as a privileged and detached entity. The proposed changes to the remuneration mechanism should therefore be understood not merely as a budgetary reform, but as a measure with constitutional implications that could undermine the balance among the branches of government and impair the judiciary’s ability to function independently in safeguarding the rule of law and protecting human 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.