The Knesset voted Wednesday 65-51 to pass a law significantly weakening the powers of the attorney general — one of Israel’s few checks on executive power — after over eleven hours of filibustering by the opposition and later the coalition.

The legislation, which is currently set to enter into effect in January 2027, two months after the next elections, would effectively strip the attorney general of authority over the government by allowing ministers to reject the attorney general’s currently binding legal positions.

It would also grant the coalition effective control over appointing and dismissing the person holding the office, replacing the current system under which the cabinet acts on the recommendation of an independent public committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice.

The bill would not affect the attorney general’s authority as head of the state prosecution, including decisions on whether to open criminal investigations into senior elected officials, as had been proposed in an earlier version of the legislation.

In an effort to speed the bill’s passage, the coalition removed those provisions but has said it will pursue them in separate legislation if reelected on October 27.

The bill passed after the coalition secured passage earlier this week of key measures demanded by its ultra-Orthodox partners under a quid pro quo agreement between Netanyahu and the Haredi parties.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was absent from both the eleven-hour plenary discussion and the vote itself. He was similarly not present at a highly controversial vote on Tuesday to freeze the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.

Wednesday’s vote followed a minor coalition crisis in which United Torah Judaism MK and Degel HaTorah faction leader Moshe Gafni threatened to withhold support for the bill unless the government first approved tens of millions of shekels in additional funding for daycare teachers in the Haredi school system. As a result, the bill’s sponsor MK Simcha Rothman delayed proceedings, speaking for more than 90 minutes until coalition leaders resolved the crisis.

Gafni later confirmed the funds were approved, with Hebrew-language media putting the figure at NIS 39 million ($13 million).

“This is another step in a process aimed at equalizing the salary conditions of Haredi kindergarten teachers with those of their colleagues in mainstream........

© The Times of Israel