“Democracy on the Frontlines” Conference Survey
Held by IDI’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions
Prepared by Anat Thon Ashkenazy, together with the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research
• Only a small minority of the Israeli public (8%) think that the judicial overhaul should be the government’s highest priority today. • The majority of the total sample (61%) think that in the current situation, advancing the judicial overhaul is not the right thing to do. • On the Right, 40% of respondents think that the coalition’s plan should not be advanced at present, compared to 80% in the Center and 92% on the Left. • The majority of respondents (53%) support keeping the current structure of the Judicial Selection Committee. Only around a quarter (27%) support adding politicians to the Committee
The survey was conducted between December 31, 2024 and January 6, 2025, using a representative sample of the adult population in Israel aged 18 and above, comprising 1,000 Jewish male and female interviewees and 202 Arab male and female interviewees.
It should be noted that the survey was carried out before the announcement of the plan put forward by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on January 9, 2025, which might have affected the responses if the survey were held afterward.
On the assumption that the use of the terms “judicial reform” or “judicial overhaul” might influence the responses, some of the questions used both terms simultaneously.
The survey findings were presented in full at the “Democracy on the Frontlines” conference, which was held by IDI's Center for Democratic Values and Institutions on Monday January 13, 2025. Speakers at the conference included former President of the Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch; former Supreme Court Justice Anat Baron; former Attorney General Prof. Avihai Mandelblit; former Minister of Science and Technology Yizhar Shai; Brigadier General (retd.) Dedi Simchi; Einav Zangauker (mother of hostage Matan Zangauker); Former Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri; Prof. Barak Medina; Dr. Manal Totry-Jubran; former Minister of Labor, Welfare and Social Services Itzik Shmuli, Director General of UJA-Federation of New York’s Israel Office; and more.
The topics addressed in the survey are as follows:
- What issues should be the government’s highest priority today?
- The level of support for the judicial overhaul being advanced by the Minister of Justice
- The level of support for advancing the Minister’s plan at the current time
- The degree to which the plan is viewed as essential in order to strengthen governance, versus opposition to the plan due to concerns of an over-concentration of power in the hands of the government
- Whether concerns about harm to the independence of the judicial system, to freedom of expression and protest, and to national unity are factors affecting the views of those who support or oppose the plan
- Opinions regarding the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee
- Opinions regarding the bill put forward by the Coalition to close the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) and IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal)
The main findings are as follows:
Against the backdrop of the many challenges facing the State of Israel, we asked our respondents what should be the government’s highest priority today. The responses made clear that the judicial reform/overhaul ranks at the bottom of the public’s list of priorities: 40.5% think that the most important issue currently is stabilizing the security situation; 34% cited dealing with the high cost of living; 15%, passing a new Military Service Law that will address the needs of the IDF; and only 8.5% think that advancing the judicial reform is the most important issue for the government to deal with at the moment.
Even on the Right, there is little support for the coalition’s plan as the highest priority at present (just 13%), while the level of support is lower still in the Center (4%) and on the Left (2%).
Interestingly, women rate the security challenge more highly as a priority than do men: 45% of Jewish women and 47.5% of Arab women rank stabilizing the security situation as most important, compared to 35% of Jewish men and 39% of Arab men. These data may reflect the unique impact of the war on women (who have suffered a greater negative effect on employment, higher incidence of domestic violence, and a lack of representation and influence in key positions and decision-making forums with regard to ending the war). There is almost no difference between women and men in ranking the judicial overhaul at the bottom of the government’s priorities.
What issue do you think should be the government’s highest priority today? (total sample; %)
We wanted to know whether there is support for the judicial reform/overhaul that Justice Minister Levin is advancing, without comparing it to other issues on the agenda (as noted above, the survey was carried out before the Levin-Sa’ar plan was announced). We found that more than half of the total sample are opposed to these steps (55%), while more than a third support them (36.5%).
Comparing the Jewish and Arab samples reveals that while opposition to the judicial reform/overhaul among Jews stands at just over half (50.5%), the opposition among Arab respondents is sweeping (79%). These findings show that even if the Arab public does not actively participate in the protests against the coalition’s plan, the majority of Arabs oppose it. (It is possible that the reasons for the lack of Arab participation in the protests are related to worries about other, more urgent issues on the agenda, such as violence and crime, to the Jewish character of the protests, or to fears of police violence at the demonstrations.)
Overall opinion regarding the judicial reform/overhaul being advanced by Justice Minister Yariv Levin (%)
Against the backdrop of the question about national priorities and the challenges facing the State of Israel, and the relatively low level of overall support for the judicial reform/overhaul, we wanted to know whether the timing of advancing this plan would affect the level of support for it.
Compared to the level of overall opposition to the plan, the share of participants who think that advancing the judicial reform/overhaul is not the right thing to do at the current time is even larger, standing at 61%, while the share of those in favor is smaller, at 32%.
Breaking down the Jewish sample by political orientation reveals widespread opposition to advancing the plan at the current time in the Center (80%) and on the Left (92%), while there is also considerable opposition on the Right, where 40% of respondents say that now is not the time.
These findings show that while the question of timing is not hugely significant for opponents of the reform, it is critical for supporters. In the national religious population, for example, there is broad overall support for the plan (73%), but when respondents are asked whether it is the right thing to do at the current time, the level of support drops significantly (57%).
Against the backdrop of the current situation, is advancing this plan the right thing to do or not the right thing to do at the current time? (%)
We presented our respondents with the claim by the proponents of the coalition’s plan that the “reform” is necessary in order to strengthen governance and the government’s ability to act, alongside the counter-claim by the reform’s opponents that it will lead to an over-concentration of power in the hands of the government, and asked which of these two claims they agree with more.
The majority (55%) agree that these changes will lead to an over-concentration of power in the hands of the government, while a minority (37.5%) think that they are necessary in order to strengthen governance.
A deeper look at the Jewish sample produces an interesting, if unsurprising, finding—a significant link between the opinion expressed on this question and the respondent’s political orientation. The majority on the Left agree that the changes will lead to an over-concentration of power in the hands of the government (89%), compared to a smaller share of those in the Center (75%). However, a not inconsiderable share of those on the Right (30%) also think that the reform will result in the government having too much power.
The proponents of the judicial reform/overhaul claim that the proposed changes are necessary in order to strengthen governance and the government’s ability to act. Its opponents claim that the changes will lead to an over-concentration of power in the hands of the government. Which claim do you agree with more? (total sample; %)
We wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the other factors affecting support for or opposition to the judicial overhaul.
In the total sample, we found that concerns about harm to national unity are a factor in the question of supporting or opposing the reform for a majority of respondents (68%).
Concerns about harm to freedom of expression and protest are also a consideration for the majority of respondents (63%), as are concerns about harm to the independence of the judicial system (60.5%).
We looked at whether each of these factors carries similar weight when breaking down the Jewish sample by political orientation, and found considerable differences between the Left and the Center, on the one hand, and the Right, on the other. While a majority of those on the Left and (89%) in the Center (77%) consider concerns about harm to freedom of expression to be a factor, only a minority on the Right concur (44.5%). Similar differences were found regarding concerns about harm to the independence of the judicial system (Left, 89%; Center, 74%; Right, 43%). The smallest discrepancy between the political camps was found regarding concerns about national unity, which were cited as having an impact on the decision to support or oppose the judicial reform by almost identical shares of those on the Left (79%) and in the Center (80%), but also by a majority of those on the Right (59%).
The survey found that the majority of the public (53%) support keeping the current structure, which provides a balance between professional and political representatives, while only around a quarter (27%) support changing it to give control over the Committee to the Coalition representatives. In the Arab sample, the level of support for maintaining the current situation (62.5%) is even higher than the level of support in the Jewish sample (51%).
Even on the Right (Jewish sample), only a minority are in favor of adding political representatives to the Committee (41%), while support for such a move is very low in the Center (12.4%) and on the Left (6%).
Though the survey was conducted before the announcement of the Levin-Sa’ar plan, which essentially proposes political control of the Judicial Selection Committee, the survey results show that the Israeli public support retaining the current, balanced arrangement, which requires agreement between the political Committee members and the professional members (justices and representatives of the Israel Bar Association). These findings would seem to reflect a stable public opinion on this issue, as evidenced by the similar results obtained by a survey conducted in February 2023, when the Minister of Justice was promoting a bill that would award a majority on the Committee to representatives of the Coalition. Then, too, the majority of respondents (52%) supported keeping the existing structure of the Committee, and only just over a quarter (28%) were in favor of adding more politicians.
In the context of the discussion about the judicial reform/overhaul with regard to the Judicial Selection Committee, which of the following two proposals do you support more? (total sample; %)
Against the backdrop of various bills being put forward in the Knesset that are hostile toward the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (privatizing it, closing down the news department, cutting its budget, and increasing political oversight) and IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal), we asked our respondents, in two separate questions, whether they support or oppose closing the IPBC and closing IDF Radio.
A large majority are opposed to closing the IPBC (64%) and IDF Radio (59.%), while only around a quarter of respondents support such steps (closing the IPBC, 26%; closing IDF Radio, 27.5%).
Closer analysis reveals that the share of Arab respondents who oppose closing the IPBC and IDF Radio (75% and 73%, respectively) is even larger than the equivalent share of Jewish respondents (62% and 57%, respectively). In the Jewish sample, the opposition to this move is sizable even on the Right (closing the IPBC, 47%; closing IDF Radio, 43%), while there is sweeping opposition on the Center and in the Left to closing the IPBC (Center, 86%; Left, 90%) and closing IDF Radio (Center, 79%; Left, 83%).
Do you support or oppose the following bills, which are included in the judicial reform/overhaul currently being advanced in the Knesset? (total sample; %)
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The survey was conducted via the internet and by telephone (to include groups that are under-represented on the internet) between December 31, 2024 and January 6, 2025, with 1,000 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 202 in Arabic, constituting a nationally representative sample of the adult population in Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum sampling error was ±2.83% at a confidence level of 95%. Field work was carried out by Shiluv I²R.
- Tags:
- The Judicial Overhaul,
- Rule of Law,
- IDI Proposals in Response to the Judicial Overhaul,
- Judicial Overhaul Implications,
- Judiciary,
- Legislation,
- Nation-State,
- Police and Internal Security,
- Right to Equality,
- Supreme Court,
- Surveys and Polls,
- The Judicial Selection Committee,
- Center for Democratic Values and Institutions,
- Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research