The Ministerial Committee for Legislation 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 giving ministers and the government far broader control.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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. Its recommendations would not bind the government, and if it failed to act within the bill’s timetable, the government could proceed without them.
The bills would also allow the government to remove a senior civil servant “at any time,” according to its “exclusive discretion,” after allowing the official to present a response. Senior officials’ terms would also end within 100 days of a new government being formed, unless the new government decides to extend them.
Levin framed the legislation as a governance measure.
Levin: Government should work with loyal officials
“It is time for an elected government to be able to work with public officials who are committed to its policy,” Levin said. “This is an important stage on the way to fixing the systems and restoring governance.”
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’s constitutional power to manage the executive branch.
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 “dramatic and far-reaching” change to senior appointments and dismissals and lead to the “complete politicization” of those posts.
Limon wrote that the bills would cancel, “in one stroke,” decades of laws, government decisions, and civil service procedures meant to preserve a professional and apolitical public service.
“The 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,” the opinion reads.
The Attorney-General’s 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.
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.
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’s decisions would become “conditional,” because the government could end the official’s tenure at any time or after a change of government.
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.
The committee’s approval does not enact the bills into law, but gives them coalition backing ahead of the legislative process in the Knesset.