The ruling coalition is speeding ahead with a series of controversial moves targeting the media, including legislation that would place the Kan public broadcaster’s budget under government control, as the Knesset faces the possibility of an early halt to its activities should snap elections be called.
Defying repeated legal objections, lawmakers on Monday sent the Kan budget bill back to the Knesset plenum for its final readings before passage and okayed splitting a broadcast media overhaul pushed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s into separate bills to allow certain parts of it to advance. They also added a last-minute amendment to the measure that will solely benefit the hawkish Channel 14 outlet.
The legislative push has intensified accusations that the government is attempting to assert control over Israel’s media landscape, with critics now alleging that the measures are being rushed through so they can be implemented before voters head to the polls, possibly as early as September.
Coalition lawmakers reject those claims, arguing the measures are necessary reforms to an outdated regulatory system.
Despite Monday’s votes, it remains unclear whether the coalition can assemble the majority needed to pass the legislation into law amid the ongoing coalition crisis between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultra-Orthodox parties over the failure to pass a bill regulating military service exemptions for yeshiva students.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Earlier this month, the Haredi parties backed efforts to dissolve the Knesset and force early elections over the dispute. The coalition has since struggled to advance legislation, repeatedly withdrawing bills from the plenum agenda rather than risk defeat without ultra-Orthodox support.
Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democrats party, explicitly accused the government on Monday of attempting to seize control of Israel’s media to avoid losing the election, which is currently scheduled for late October.
“That is why, in recent weeks, it has been working at full force to seize control of the free media before the public goes to the polls,” he said ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, arguing that the coalition is attempting to compress “[former Hungarian prime minister] Viktor Orban’s entire Hungarian playbook into a matter of weeks.”
Yisrael Beytenu MK Evgeny Sova, who sits on the special Knesset panel established to deliberate Karhi’s broadcast media overhaul, similarly accused the coalition of using legislation to weaken the free press ahead of elections.
“We are fighting for freedom of expression, but also journalism and the public’s right to reliable information,” Sova told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
MK Galit Distel Atbaryan leads the Special Committee for the Communications Law at the Knesset, May 25, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
At a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee Monday, lawmakers voted to advance a bill giving the government authority to determine the budget of the Kan public broadcaster to its first of three readings in the Knesset.
MKs pushed ahead with the measure despite opposition from the Knesset legal department, the Economics Committee’s legal advisers, and the deputy attorney general, who all said that the legislation does not meet constitutional standards.
The bill is seen as part of Karhi’s two-year campaign to dismantle the public broadcaster, which currently acts as an independent media outlet and is often critical of government officials.
The station’s funding is guaranteed by Israel’s Public Broadcasting Act, with strict provisions intended to preserve barriers between the broadcaster and political authorities, including keeping the government from being able to unilaterally alter or reduce the broadcaster’s funding.
The proposed legislation would end that independence and give ministers the authority to set and potentially cut the budget of the station, potentially giving the government a lever of control over coverage.
The measure was taken up in March by the Finance Committee, headed by Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after Economics Committee head David Bitan, also a Likud MK, came out against the legislation.
Finance Committee chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky leads a Finance committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 19, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Milwidsky said he is open to adding a provision during the legislative process to delay the law’s implementation until after the elections.
Opponents of the bill, including opposition lawmakers, journalists’ organizations and Kan itself, have warned that making the broadcaster dependent on annual government funding would undermine press freedom by discouraging critical reporting, especially ahead of upcoming elections, and argued it should not advance until after the vote.
Supporters of the bill, including Karhi, counter that as a taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, Kan should be subject to oversight by elected officials.
Overhaul split
Karhi is also pursuing legislation that would give the government significant control over broadcast media, news sites, and other media by establishing a new regulatory council largely made up of members chosen by the communications minister.
On Monday, a special Knesset panel established to advance the controversial broadcast media overhaul bill voted to split it into separate parts, paving the way for the coalition to push ahead with the part of the legislation establishing the council, while postponing contentious provisions dealing with news providers, oversight, enforcement, and obligations of international streamers still being hashed out.
The move to split the bill was opposed by the committee’s legal advisers, Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik and opposition lawmakers, who did not participate in the vote.
By splitting the bill, Karhi’s plans to shut down the Second Authority for Television and Radio, which regulates broadcasters, would be placed on the back burner, with the body continuing to oversee entities currently under its jurisdiction. Its core powers would remain intact, except for oversight of original productions, which would be transferred to the new authority.
Legal advisers warned that the split violates accepted legislative practice by removing core sections of the bill simply because the committee has not finished debating them.
Appearing before the committee, Afik said she has voiced her opposition to the move for months, arguing that the part of the legislation slated to move ahead does not stand up as a coherent law on its own.
“I am not familiar with a case in which provisions were separated simply because there was not enough time to discuss them,” she said.
“את יועמ”שית סלקטיבית” – שר התקשורת שלמה קרעי בביקורת על יועמ”שית הכנסת עו”ד שגית אפק, שהשיבה: “25 שנה שהייעוץ המשפטי ניתן בדיוק באותו אופן לכל חברי הכנסת ויושבי ראש הוועדות”
????️מתוך הדיון בנושא הצ”ח התקשורת@shlomo_karhi https://t.co/JRr5g7ciyr pic.twitter.com/30OOVGRjnR
— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) May 25, 2026
Sova told The Times of Israel that the coalition turned to the unusual procedure because it was unable to complete deliberations on the full bill amid sustained opposition from legal advisers and opposition lawmakers.
“A legislative split is meant for situations where distinct subjects can stand on their own as separate laws,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be used because you’ve only managed to discuss half the bill and want to pass that part first.”
Coalition lawmakers countered that the split legislation was necessary because there is insufficient time to complete work on the entire bill before upcoming elections.
Sova rejected coalition accusations that legal advisers or opposition lawmakers had deliberately delayed the proceedings, saying their job is to scrutinize the legislation.
“When committee members ask questions or seek legal opinions, he calls it a filibuster,” Sova said of Karhi. “I call it the work of a member of Knesset. That’s my job.”
During a heated debate ahead of the vote on splitting the bill, opposition lawmakers called the vote illegal and accused the coalition of rushing through major legislation without adequate scrutiny.
Both the committee’s professional legal staff and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara have warned that the legislation undermines press freedom and allows for political interference in media.
“אתם מבזים את הכנסת” – על רקע מחאות של חברי האופוזיציה, יו”ר הוועדה ח”כ גלית דיסטל הקריאה את נוסח החוק לקראת ההצבעה – ויצאה להתייעצות סיעתית
????️מתוך הדיון בנושא הצ”ח התקשורת@GalitDistel https://t.co/53cBI2mgh8 pic.twitter.com/zzwKF2iTwd
— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) May 25, 2026
‘Do you think we’re stupid?’
Opposition lawmakers also criticized a last-minute amendment added to Karhi’s overhaul bill that would exempt the pro-government Channel 14 news outlet from a new requirement obligating broadcasters to provide certain content to television platforms free of charge.
The provision, added over the weekend, stipulates that only channels generating more than NIS 600 million ($208 million) in annual revenue would be subject to provide the content, a threshold that would obligate Channels 12 and 13 but not Channel 14, a relative newcomer to the media sphere.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi attends a meeting of the Special Committee for the Communications Law at the Knesset, May 19, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The requirement is estimated to cost the channels NIS 40 million ($13.8 million) annually, according to Hebrew-language media.
“Suddenly in the new draft, anyone with more than NIS 600 million in annual revenue has to provide content for free? Who does that serve? Come, everyone, let’s all act surprised,” said Yesh Atid MK Shelly Tal Meron sarcastically to Karhi.
“Do you think we’re stupid? We know that you intervened and decided this on your own, contrary to your ministry’s professional staff, because you want to give Channel 14 special treatment,” she continued.
Karhi has openly framed the legislation as meant to level the playing field between Channel 14, which presents a conservative viewpoint, and Channels 12 and 13, legacy outlets long accused by the government of being mouthpieces for the left.
Opposition lawmakers and both the Knesset legal staff and committee legal advisor have accused the coalition of introducing major new clauses and revisions to the legislation at the last minute while deliberately accelerating the bill ahead of possible elections, despite repeated objections from the committee’s legal advisory team.
Sova claimed that Karhi was pushing ahead with the legislation despite legal defects liable to lead to it being struck down in order to win points with right-wing voters.
“If the legislation passes, they get legislation against media outlets they don’t like because those outlets criticize the government,” he said. “If the court blocks it, they get another election campaign against the judiciary.”
The special Knesset panel deliberating the bill was created as an ad-hoc way to bypass the committee headed by Bitan, who also opposes the legislation.
The committee’s conduct has been consistently criticized by opposition lawmakers and the Knesset legal staff, who have accused both Karhi and chair Galit Distel-Atbaryan of bypassing parliamentary procedure, curtailing debate, mistreating legal advisers and disregarding professional legal advice to accelerate the legislation.
Afik, in April, called for the legislation to be transferred back to Bitan’s Economics Committee, warning that the current proceedings no longer meet the basic requirements of a proper legislative process.
The communications minister’s unusually prominent role in the legislative process has also been highly criticized as Knesset committees are intended to independently scrutinize legislation, including government-backed bills, as part of the separation between the legislative and executive branches.
