Knesset Passes Law Curtailing the Attorney General’s Authority in Final Days Before Dissolution

Among the most consequential measures the Knesset passed in its closing days was legislation sharply limiting the power of Israel’s attorney general, a change critics call the removal of a central check on government authority and supporters describe as a long overdue correction.

The bill passed Wednesday by a margin of 65 to 51, after more than eleven hours of filibustering. It takes effect in January. Under the new law, the government will no longer be bound by the attorney general’s legal positions, and will have significantly greater influence over how the office is filled. The government will decide within thirty days of the law taking effect, after the elections, how the attorney general is appointed and dismissed.

The legislation was spearheaded by MK Simcha Rothman of Religious Zionism, who chairs the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and called it a good and important law, noting that similar arrangements have been proposed under previous governments. An earlier version would have split the role into separate attorney general and prosecutor general positions, but the committee ran short of time before dissolution, so criminal prosecution powers remain with the attorney general for now.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has fought the measure from the outset, warning it will severely undermine the rule of law and describing the broader package as stage two of the judicial overhaul. She has argued that letting the government determine for itself whether its actions are lawful strips away meaningful oversight. Researchers at the Israel Democracy Institute echoed that assessment.

The law caps a long running conflict. Netanyahu has sought for years to remove Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by Yair Lapid during his brief premiership. The High Court annulled the government’s attempt to fire her on procedural grounds.

Passage came only after last minute wrangling. Rothman filibustered his own bill for roughly ninety minutes to allow negotiations to conclude, after United Torah Judaism’s Moshe Gafni threatened to withhold his faction’s support.

With the Knesset now dissolved, the law’s future rests with the next government, and with the courts.