Avi Nissenkorn

Avraham ("Avi") Daniel Nissenkorn was born on March 20, 1967, in Afula, in northern Israel.[1] His parents, Israel and Ilana, were physicians who had immigrated from Poland.[1] As a youth he was a competitive sprinter, representing Israel in the men's 200-meter race at the 1986 World Junior Championships in Athletics.[1] During his Israel Defense Forces service he worked as a sports instructor.[1]

Nissenkorn graduated from Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Law and went on to work in labor relations.[2] He headed the Histadrut's Collective Agreements Department and later served as legal adviser to its Professional Union Division.[2] He opened his own law office in 2001 before returning to the Histadrut in 2010.[3]

The Histadrut's House of Representatives approved Nissenkorn as its 14th chair in May 2014, with his tenure beginning June 1 of that year.[2] He succeeded Ofer Eini following Eini's recommendation, becoming the first Histadrut leader to come directly from its legal department.[1] His appointment was challenged in court by petitioners who argued that a general election should be held to choose the successor; both the district court and the Supreme Court rejected the petition and the appointment proceeded.[2]

Before leading the organization, Nissenkorn had chaired its Professional Union Division, where he negotiated national wage agreements and labor agreements across broad sectors of the economy.[2] Early in his tenure he broadened the Histadrut's agenda beyond wage negotiations into social issues including equality, public health, education, welfare, and contract employment.[4] Among the initiatives attributed to this period were an agreement with employers setting a target that at least 3% of employees at each workplace be people with disabilities, and an agreement to improve pay and conditions for private-sector security guards.[4]

In December 2014, Nissenkorn and business organizations' chair Zvika Oren agreed to raise the private-sector minimum wage to NIS 5,000 in three stages: NIS 4,650 from April 1, 2015; NIS 4,825 from August 1, 2016; and NIS 5,000 from January 1, 2017.[5] The agreement also set the future minimum wage at 52% of the average wage — up from 47.5% — and established a new adjustment mechanism to follow the three increases.[5] Nissenkorn remarked at the time: "We promised not to settle for an increase of only NIS 200, and we delivered."[5]

In 2015, Nissenkorn and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon reached an agreement averting a threatened general strike by public-sector workers.[6] The deal provided for a 7.5% pay increase over five years, backdated to 2013, with proportionally larger increases for lower-wage workers; half the increase would be paid in cash and half as a percentage raise, and workers were also to receive NIS 1,000 bonuses in January 2016 and January 2017.[6] The Histadrut had originally sought an 11% increase, while the Finance Ministry had sought to hold increases to between 3% and 7%.[6]

Nissenkorn also brokered an agreement ending a four-month strike at three Dead Sea-area factories operated by Israel Chemicals Ltd.[7] The settlement designated 38 employees for dismissal with severance totaling 300% of the wage rate, subject to a period for them to prove themselves, provided for 100 employees to retire early, and noted that another 100 had already retired in preceding months.[7] Nissenkorn stated that the agreement would return 2,000 people to work and that "no worker will be laid off at this stage," while also warning against neglecting Israel's southern periphery.[7]

A workweek reduction deal signed with Manufacturers Association president Shraga Brosh took effect on April 1, 2018, cutting the standard working week from 43 to 42 hours — or from 186 to 182 hours per month — without any reduction in pay.[8] It was the first economy-wide cut in working hours in Israel since 1995; the agreement also capped night shifts at no more than seven in any two-week period.[8] Nissenkorn described his ambition at the signing: "We have to leave more time for family and leisure….We'll continue to push for more reductions in the workweek."[8]

In a 2017 interview, Nissenkorn identified a 10% real increase in wages across the Israeli economy over the preceding three and a half years as his principal achievement, attributing it especially to the minimum-wage increases and the public-sector wage agreement, and noting accompanying improvements in social benefits, mandatory pension contributions of 18.5%, and two additional vacation days per year.[9] Nissenkorn held the Histadrut chair for five years, through 2019.[10]

Nissenkorn joined Benny Gantz's Hosen LeYisrael party in 2019 and entered the Knesset as part of the Kahol Lavan alliance.[10] He was listed fifth on its candidate list for the April and September 2019 elections.[11] He held parliamentary roles including membership on the Finance Committee, chair of the Knesset Committee, and chair of the Blue and White faction.[10] For the March 2, 2020 election to the 23rd Knesset, he was again placed fifth on Kahol Lavan's list; the party won 33 seats in that election.[12]

Following the Blue and White–Likud coalition agreement, Nissenkorn was sworn in as justice minister in the 35th Israeli government on May 17, 2020.[13] At his ministry handover ceremony he described the Justice Ministry as "the shield that defends democracy" and pledged to judiciary staff: "from now on, I will be your shield."[14] He added that while criticism of the justice system could be legitimate, it did not justify its "delegitimization."[14]

In a September 2020 interview, Nissenkorn said much of his work as justice minister was directed toward defending the attorney general, prosecution, and courts from political attacks. He opposed a proposed parliamentary inquiry into alleged conflicts of interest involving senior legal officials and judges, calling it absurd and saying it undermined democracy.[3]

As justice minister, Nissenkorn chaired the Judicial Selection Committee during a period when it was selecting judges, including for the Supreme Court.[3] He said he sought professional and independent judges, supported diversity that reflected Israeli society, and favored reducing the number of politicians on the committee.[3] He also advanced a revision of Israel's Civil Procedure Regulations, intended to replace rules dating from 1984; the reform included limits on written submissions, more oral arguments, fewer preliminary proceedings, and expanded judicial powers.[3] Nissenkorn cited an average of 900 days to resolve a contractual dispute in Israeli courts — compared with 500 days in Europe — and noted that around 800 judges and registrars were handling roughly 900,000 civil cases alongside criminal caseloads.[3]

He also announced five measures to reform the Police Internal Investigations Department: removing police officers from its investigations division to make it fully civilian; prioritizing hate-crime complaints; strengthening appropriate representation among staff; shortening complaint-handling times; and recruiting additional prosecutors.[3] Nissenkorn said the department was not yet operating at the level of excellence he expected.[3]

In December 2020, Nissenkorn left Kahol Lavan to join Tel Aviv-Jaffa mayor Ron Huldai's new Hayisraelim party.[15] Gantz asked him to resign the justice ministry following his departure from the party, and Nissenkorn submitted his resignation on December 30, 2020.[16] In January 2021 he announced he would not run with Huldai's party, saying the political camp needed alliances and that he was stepping aside.[17] In announcing the decision, he cited his commitments to the rule of law, opposition to discrimination and racism, gender equality, LGBT rights, and equality among Israeli citizens.[16]

After leaving government, Nissenkorn served as president of the Israel Hotel Association and as a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.[10] In 2023 he was elected chair of the governing board of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, replacing former Finance Ministry director-general Yaron Ariav.[10] The university's governing board and board of trustees unanimously accepted the recommendation of the search committee; the position was described as voluntary.[10]

Several aspects of Nissenkorn's career attracted reported criticism or legal challenge. His appointment as Histadrut chair in 2014 was contested in court by petitioners who argued that the succession should have been decided through general elections; the courts rejected the petition.[2] In the 2017 Histadrut chair election, in which Nissenkorn defeated former Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich, Yachimovich reportedly raised questions about ballot boxes transported by trucks; Nissenkorn rejected allegations of irregularities and described the election process as orderly.[9] These are reported accounts of a disputed election rather than independently adjudicated findings.

Critics also alleged that Nissenkorn represented institutional labor interests without adequately fighting for weaker sectors of the workforce and that he did not advance promised transparency measures.[1] The extent to which wage gains during his Histadrut tenure were attributable to his leadership rather than to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's parallel role was a subject of debate in contemporaneous coverage.[1][18] Some reporting also recorded the view that the absorption of contract workers into the public sector was insufficient because outsourcing continued despite the agreement.[18] These criticisms and assessments are drawn from reported commentary and do not represent established findings.