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Discussion in the National Security Committee: Legislation to shut down a Foreign Broadcasting Body

On November 18, 2025, Zulat’s CEO Einat Ovadia and Zulat’s policy advocate Bentzi Sikora participated in the National Security Committee session to voice opposition to MK Ariel Kellner’s draconian bill for the closure of a foreign broadcasting entity.

The private member’s bill was tabled after an emergency provision – itself draconian and extreme – had already been legislated as an immediate response to the crisis situation at the outbreak of the ‘Iron Swords’ war, and has since been extended several times. Kellner now seeks to make it a permanent provision despite the end of the state of emergency, and to significantly expand the government’s powers to infringe on constitutional fundamental rights.

If passed, the proposal would allow the Communications Minister to order the blocking of content on social networks (as in North Korea), to block civilian satellites by using military jammers (as in North Korea), and to expel any foreign media outlet labelled, without clear criteria, as ‘harming state security’ (as in North Korea).

In her remarks, Zulat’s CEO explained how this proposal constitutes another milestone in the overall media coup: an attempt by the government to take over the free press by adopting Viktor Orbán’s Hungary-familiar strategy, as documented in Zulat’s report ‘Is This Not Hungary? The Elimination of Free Press in Israel in Comparative Perspective.’

Together with the de-legitimization of independent journalists, the takeover of public broadcasting, economic-regulatory manipulations, and SLAPP lawsuits, the closure of foreign media bodies constitutes another tool in the authoritarian toolbox for eliminating free journalism.

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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.