The High Court of Justice heard arguments on Sunday in a case over Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s handling of appointments tied to the governing council of Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN, in a dispute that has become a broader test of the independence and functioning of public broadcasting in Israel.
At the center of the hearing are petitions challenging steps Karhi took, and, in some cases, failed to take, that critics say helped leave KAN’s council without a quorum and unable to function fully.
According to the attorney-general’s position, submitted ahead of the hearing, Karhi’s decision to remove retired judge Nehama Munitz from her post as chair of the search committee was unlawful, lacked an adequate factual basis, and amounted to forbidden interference in an independent appointments process.
The attorney-general’s office asked the court to cancel Munitz’s removal and to order the immediate transfer of council nominations for review by the appointments committee. In its filing, the state argued that Karhi’s conduct raises serious concern that he deliberately sought to frustrate the independent work of the search committee, whose role is to recommend members for the council.
The practical stakes are significant. Under Israeli law, KAN’s council is meant to have 12 members, but only five are currently serving, below the minimum seven needed for a quorum. Without a functioning council, the broadcaster has not been able to approve its budget for the current year and has been operating since the start of 2026 under a continuation budget instead.
Sunday’s hearing is the latest chapter in a long-running confrontation between Karhi and the public broadcaster. In August 2025, the High Court ruled that Karhi had no authority to intervene in the appointments process once he had appointed the chair of the search committee. At the time, the court found he could not involve himself in the committee’s work.
The dispute has also unfolded against a wider political and legislative push around public broadcasting. Karhi has for months advocated major changes to KAN, including proposals to privatize it, cut its public funding, or strip it of parts of its news operation - steps critics say would erode the broadcaster’s independence.
At Sunday’s hearing, Karhi defended his decision by arguing that removing Munitz was not only reasonable but necessary. He claimed that she changed threshold conditions retroactively during the process and did so under improper pressure from the attorney-general’s office, leading, in his telling, to the unlawful filtering of candidates.
Not Karhi's first clash with court over KAN
Karhi has also publicly clashed with the court before over the broadcaster. In July 2025, he said he would not honor a High Court order extending the term of a KAN council member, a move that drew sharp criticism and added to concerns over the council’s paralysis.
The panel hearing the case on Sunday consists of Justices Ofer Grosskopf, Khaled Kabub, and Gila Canfy-Steinitz. With the hearing still underway, it remained unclear whether the court would issue an immediate interim directive or reserve judgment for a later decision.
What is already clear is that the case reaches beyond a narrow appointments fight. For the petitioners and the attorney-general, it concerns whether a minister can effectively disable the governing body of a public broadcaster by blocking or derailing the mechanism meant to replenish it.
For Karhi and his allies, it is part of a wider battle over legal oversight, ministerial authority, and the future shape of Israel’s media landscape.