{"id":106727,"date":"2026-05-10T14:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:20:13","slug":"levin-backed-appointments-bill-advances-despite-attorney-general-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106727\/","title":{"rendered":"Levin-backed appointments bill advances despite Attorney-General warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation<\/a> approved on Sunday bills that would overhaul the way Israel appoints and removes senior civil servants, replacing much of the current professional screening system with a model that would give ministers and the government far broader control.<\/p>\n

The proposals, submitted by Likud MK Shalom Danino and backed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would apply to a long list of senior posts, including the IDF chief of staff<\/a>, police commissioner, Shin Bet chief, Mossad chief, Israel Prison Service commissioner, civil service commissioner, attorney-general and deputies, ministry directors-general, and any post requiring government approval.<\/p>\n

Under the current system, most civil service jobs are filled through public tenders. Senior posts exempt from tenders are generally still reviewed by professional committees that examine qualifications, suitability, integrity, possible political ties, and other safeguards.<\/p>\n

The bills would replace that system with a new process. A minister would choose a candidate at their discretion and send the name to a government-appointed qualifications committee. That committee would have seven days to determine only whether the candidate meets the formal threshold requirements for the job.<\/p>\n

The candidate would then go to a Knesset hearings committee made up of two coalition MKs, two opposition MKs, and a chair elected by the Knesset<\/a>. Its recommendations would not bind the government, and if it failed to act within the bill\u2019s timetable, the government could proceed without them.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Minister Yariv Levin attends a special plenum session in honor of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem during his official visit to Israel, February 25, 2026. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

The bills would also allow the government to remove a senior civil servant \u201cat any time,\u201d according to its \u201cexclusive discretion,\u201d after allowing the official to present a response. Senior officials\u2019 terms would also end within 100 days of a new government being formed, unless the new government decides to extend them.<\/p>\n

Levin<\/a> framed the legislation as a governance measure.<\/p>\n

Levin: Government should work with loyal officials<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for an elected government to be able to work with public officials who are committed to its policy,\u201d Levin said. \u201cThis is an important stage on the way to fixing the systems and restoring governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danino said the bills were meant to create an orderly process for senior appointments, arguing that the authority to dismiss officials is part of the government\u2019s constitutional power to manage the executive branch.<\/p>\n

But Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon, writing on behalf of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, urged Levin to oppose the bills, saying they would make a \u201cdramatic and far-reaching\u201d change to senior appointments and dismissals and lead to the \u201ccomplete politicization\u201d of those posts.<\/p>\n

Limon wrote that the bills would cancel, \u201cin one stroke,\u201d decades of laws, government decisions, and civil service procedures meant to preserve a professional and apolitical public service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public service is not a pool of jobs for those close to the government, but a central tool in the state for realizing the rights and welfare of citizens,\u201d the opinion reads.<\/p>\n

The Attorney-General\u2019s Office said the main problem was not only broader government discretion but also the removal of existing checks that distinguish among political trust positions, professional roles, and independent gatekeeper posts.<\/p>\n

The opinion warned that the proposals would turn even sensitive law enforcement, security, regulatory, and legal positions into de facto trust positions of the serving government.<\/p>\n

On dismissals, Limon wrote that the bills would remove safeguards currently meant to protect senior officials from arbitrary firing. Instead, he said, every senior official\u2019s decisions would become \u201cconditional,\u201d because the government could end the official\u2019s tenure at any time or after a change of government.<\/p>\n

The Civil Service Commission also strongly opposed the bills, according to the opinion, warning that they would undermine the civil service’s professionalism, state orientation, and apolitical nature.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s approval does not enact the bills into law, but gives them coalition backing ahead of the legislative process in the Knesset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved on Sunday bills that would overhaul the way Israel appoints and removes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[29516,5290,37,2742,4028,16705,12213],"class_list":{"0":"post-106727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-coalition","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israeli-politics","12":"tag-knesset","13":"tag-likud","14":"tag-yariv-levin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116550724736826771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}