Chaos in crucial Bar Association elections as high turnout complicates vote

The usually staid elections to the Israel Bar Association institutions turned into a chaotic and frenetic affair on Tuesday, as large numbers of voters flooded polling stations to cast their ballots in a critical struggle over the future of the judiciary.

Long lines formed outside numerous polling places, with some voters waiting for hours to cast their ballots, following strenuous efforts by campaigners both for and against the government’s judicial overhaul plans to increase voter turnout in order to increase their influence over the IBA’s National Council, which sends two association representatives to the crucial Judicial Selection Committee.

The chairman of the IBA’s Election Committee, Shlomi Bashi, sent two urgent requests to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the first at 1:30 p.m., to allow the polling stations to remain open until 8 p.m. because of the large number of people who had not been able to vote due to the long lines.

Only at 4 p.m. did Levin approve the request to extend the voting hours from the original time of 5 p.m., and his approval came too late to allow polling stations in some regional courts and some northern districts to remain open.

Several central polling stations were kept open until 9 p.m. for the same reason.

Massive lines were reported in places such as Herzliya and Petah Tikva, leading to accusations by the leading candidate for the IBA chairmanship, Amit Becher, that the campaign of chief rival Efi Nave had created problems at polling stations in Becher’s strongholds in the center, in order to depress voter turnout there.

Interim head of the Israel Bar Association Amit Becher (left) and former Israel Bar Association head Efi Nave (right). Becher and Nave are the leading candidates in the elections for IBA chairman set for June 20, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90 and Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Nave’s campaign team denied the allegations and in turn accused Becher’s campaign of engaging in the same tactics.

The last election turnout update, posted by the IBA at 2:50 p.m. was 23.6%, compared to total turnout in the last election in 2019 of 28%. Final results will only be known on Wednesday morning.

The elections to the IBA’s institutions have taken on heavy significance this time since the association elects two representatives to the Judicial Selection Committee, which chooses judges to all courts in Israel.

Levin, who chairs the committee, is seeking to overhaul the judiciary, which he claims is too activist and unduly obstructs government decisions, policy and legislation, and install less activist judges. Opponents of Levin’s agenda argue that assertive judicial review is necessary to uphold civil and human rights in the absence of other checks and balances to executive and legislative power.

More than 77,000 attorneys who are IBA members were eligible to vote for chair of the association and its National Council, which selects the representatives for the Judicial Selection Committee.

Earlier on Tuesday as voting got underway, Becher, the interim head of the organization and head of the Hope for the IBA slate, and Nave, a former IBA chairman and head of the One IBA slate, traded barbs.

“Unfortunately, the candidate running against me is a convicted criminal, who brought disgrace to the bar. There are many lawyers who are not willing to accept him,” Becher claimed in reference to Nave, who was convicted last year of smuggling his lover through border control at Ben Gurion Airport.

Interim head of the Israel Bar Association Amit Becher casts his ballot for the chairmanship of the organization at a polling station in Tel Aviv, June 20, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Nave was also arrested in 2019 on suspicion of advancing the judicial appointments of women in return for sexual favors. The State Attorney’s Office eventually declined to prosecute Nave, since key evidence against him was obtained by illegally hacking his phone and was likely to be thrown out by the court.

Becher has aligned himself with the protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul program, and told the Ynet news site that “these elections are fateful for democracy. The independence of the judiciary is at stake.”

Nave has expressed support for legal reform, although he has said he opposes “large portions” of the radical proposals made by Levin at the outset of his judicial overhaul crusade. On Tuesday, he said that he was not the “proxy” of the justice minister, while asserting that “the courts should not interfere in everything.”

He is backed by senior coalition figures and government allies and is seen as likely to cooperate with Levin.

Former Israel Bar Association chairman Efi Nave casts his ballot for the head of the association at a polling station in Tel Aviv, June 20, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Speaking at the polling station at the Jerusalem offices of the IBA, Arkady Eligulashvilli, another candidate for the association’s chairmanship, labeled Nave’s campaign “a disgrace,” referencing his criminal conviction and other legal affairs.

“It’s not appropriate that Naveh even run to head the IBA. It’s a disgrace that Naveh is running. His wife, if she wanted, couldn’t even do a legal internship and she was convicted along with Nave for the same crime, and yet he wants to be the head of the IBA,” Eligulashvilli told The Times of Israel.

But he also castigated frontrunner Becher for what he said was Becher’s politicization of the IBA with his strident campaign against the government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

“Becher is not fitting to be IBA head either, he brought politics into the IBA, he brought politicos into the IBA and we need to put an end to politicization, to wheeling and dealing, and restore norms of ethics and values to the association,” said Eligulashvilli

He declined, however, to discuss the issue of judicial ideology, saying that “professionalism” should be the only factor.

“The IBA needs to give recommendations for judges that it thinks are the most professional, who have the best judicial temperament, who can contribute to the culture of debate with their knowledge and professionalism.”

“The whole dialogue around activist or non-activist judges reduces the level of debate at the expense of the issue of professionalism. If the judge is professional, can do justice, can be effective, then activism shouldn’t be taken into consideration,” he said.

Arkady Eligulashvilli, a candidate for the chairmanship of the Israel Bar Association, in Jerusalem on June 20, 2023 (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)

Eran Ben Ari, a candidate on the Initiative – Zionist Legalism slate, which is largely sympathetic to Levin’s overhaul agenda, said the goal of the list was “to bring balance to the IBA,” which he said had been “kidnapped” by Becher and his anti-government campaign.

“We want to advance judges who are excellent but also balanced, who are professional, who will not intervene too much where they do not need to, but intervene where they are needed, and who will have judicial independence,” said Ben Ari.

He said his list was not necessarily backing Nave but that it was backing “anyone other than Becher,” since the frontrunner, he claimed, was “making it impossible for the IBA to speak with the Justice Ministry and anyone in the Knesset on professional issues relating to attorneys.”