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Idan Plus Law: Economic Benefits to Commercial Channels at the Public’s Expense

>> Click here to read the full Position Paper

As part of the coalition’s efforts to undermine the independence of free media, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, together with Likud MK Ariel Kellner, have been promoting legislation concerning the Idan Plus terrestrial television distribution system, granting significant benefits to commercial channels, particularly Channel 14, at the expense of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC). The sequence of events begins with Karhi’s illegal decision, continues with a customized private bill, and culminates in government bills attempting to solidify these anti-democratic arrangements, as detailed below:

Stage One: Karhi’s Illegal Decision (October 2023)
At the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Minister Karhi allowed Channel 14 to distribute its broadcasts via the Idan Plus platform free of charge, citing a security justification that lacked any professional validation. The minister thus acted against the law, under which all commercial channels distributing their broadcasts via the platform are required to pay distribution fees.

Stage Two: Kellner’s Private Bill – Temporary Provision (published March 2024, enacted August 2024)
Kellner’s private bill sought to grant a retroactive exemption from distribution fees for niche microchannels, tailoring the arrangement to Channel 14’s needs. In the ensuing discussions, the wording of the bill was modified to avoid accusations of customized legislation, thereby extending the benefit to long-established commercial channels that had previously paid for distribution on the system. The temporary provision stipulated that the IPBC would bear these costs instead, until the provision’s expiration on 31 January 2025.

Stage Three: Memorandum Bill on Closure of Idan Plus (published July 2024)
The government’s law memorandum on the distribution of digital channels published on 3 July 2024 introduced a significant reform in how the Idan Plus system would operate until its closure and replacement by an app-based service. The memorandum aimed to enshrine in law the economic benefits granted to the commercial channels under the temporary provision, all at the public’s expense and without thorough consideration of alternative mechanisms to ensure accessibility for end users, particularly senior citizens.

Stage Four: Memorandum Extending Temporary Provision (published December 2024)
On 31 December 2024, the government published a law memorandum seeking to extend by an additional two months the temporary provision that had been passed as a private bill, upon which the current law memorandum is based. In Knesset committee discussions, the Justice Ministry had objected to the original private bill, arguing that the issue should be addressed through legislation based on professional groundwork and research rather than a temporary provision. The bill was enacted despite this opposition, and now Minister Karhi is trying to use it as a foundation for government legislation in a move that undermines proper administrative processes and the principles of planning and professionalism.

This conduct and the sequence of events described above reflect a clear preference for political considerations and narrow interests over professional and substantive concerns. This process not only erodes public trust in state institutions but also encourages reckless and unfounded legislation, exacerbating the feeling of lack of transparency in decision-making processes. Above all, it exposes Minister Karhi’s primary objective: to weaken the free media in Israel, erode its independence, and transform the media market into a tool under government control.

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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.