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Amendment of Appointment Process: IPBC Council’s Independence Eliminated Through Political Control

>> Click here to read the full Position Paper

This position paper addresses the proposed amendment to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Law (Method of Appointing IPBC Council) submitted by Likud MK Osher Shekalim. The bill’s purpose is to change the mechanism for appointing members of the IPBC Council by eliminating the independent search committee in favor of appointments made by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and the government. It seeks to transfer the authority to appoint councilors to the government, based on the Minister’s recommendation, as well as to remove incumbent councilors and replace the current Council with a new one. The explanation attached to the bill falsely claims that the Council is dysfunctional, while in reality it possesses the required quorum to operate legally.

The Council’s autonomy is currently ensured by an independent search committee, which is designed to protect against political influences. Abolishing this mechanism would lead to political control over public broadcasting and undermine freedom of expression and the IPBC’s independence.

This is not an isolated initiative but part of a broader series of measures and private bills promoted by Karhi to weaken the IPBC and its search committee, including the improper appointment of the committee’s chairperson. The bill attempts to bypass Supreme Court rulings that safeguard the IPBC’s independence.

Altering the mechanism could enable direct political interference in the content of public broadcasting, in contravention of the original goals of the IPBC Law. There is concern that the government could exploit its authority to make fundamental changes to the structure and content of broadcasts, including political bias.

Zulat opposes the bill, which would harm freedom of expression and freedom of the press, threaten democracy, and increase political control over the IPBC, and calls for upholding independent public broadcasting that is free from political influences.

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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.