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‘Putting the Brakes’ on the National Plan to Reduce Regulation

The “Regulatory Authority” is a body whose establishment was originally required within the Arrangements Law and was presented to the public as a mechanism aimed at streamlining, eliminating, and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. In practice, had the latest Arrangements Law been approved in its original form, it would have transferred all decisions regarding the state budget to an unelected body that is unaccountable to the public.

The reason for it is that, in its original form, the Regulatory Authority would have had the power to nix any public allocation in excess of 100 million shekels. Consequently, government ministers wishing to carry out any reform in their office would have been first obliged to submit it for approval to a centralized body with veto powers, thereby depleting their job of any substance.

Following the Attorney General’s decision to approve the inclusion of the Regulatory Authority within the Arrangements Law (with the attendant stipulation that the enactment of any new regulatory legislation is banned until 2024), Zulat approached the Attorney General on 29 August 2021. Subsequently, in the wake of coalition agreements, it was decided to remove Articles 21, 28 and 30 from the Arrangements Law, and the law was passed without them.

The excluded articles deal with the power of the Regulatory Authority to make decisions that oblige the government and its ministers. Their removal from the Arrangements Law is an important achievement as it eliminates the obligation to comply with it, thereby weakening the Regulatory Authority’s powers and bolstering the status of government ministers, who are no longer obliged to comply with a supreme regulatory entity.

However, the obligation to consult the Regulatory Authority remains in effect, therein creating the potential for a major cooling effect on the authority of the elected government. In addition, it should be remembered that even after the removal of some problematic articles, the very establishment of a Regulatory Authority in Israel is something that must be fought, given that some articles contained in the approved law may substantially infringe on human rights, such as the rights to health, privacy, property, employment, housing, education, and equality.

In addition, the law’s goals, principles, characterizations, makeup, etc. contain no reference to the Regulatory Authority’s responsibility to protect and defend the public interest, nor does it contain any requirement to strike a balance between general efficiency and the protection of human rights.

Therefore, the fight against the Regulatory Authority and for human rights will continue and will henceforth deal with the specific articles excluded from the law and slated to be discussed by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee.

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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.