Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Israel Police Independence Day ceremony in Jerusalem, April 20, 2023
(JNS) — Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is expected to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismiss National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over accusations of power abuse, Channel 13 reported on Sunday.
Baharav-Miara’s expected order to the prime minister comes as she is due to submit her response to a High Court of Justice petition demanding Ben-Gvir’s removal due to his alleged “systematic, continuous and aggravated violation of the independence of the Israel Police.”
Baharav-Miara is reportedly planning to contact Netanyahu directly and warn him that he has “one last chance” to fire Ben-Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police, before the High Court could order him to do so.
According to Channel 13, Netanyahu told fellow ministers at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday night that he would refuse to dismiss Ben-Gvir, saying that the demand paves the way for a “constitutional crisis.”
“Today it’s me; tomorrow it’s you,” Ben-Gvir reportedly told Netanyahu at the meeting. “They want to take over the government.”
The premier was said to have told Ben-Gvir that he didn’t know “a faster way to bring about a constitutional crisis than trying to fire a minister without an indictment.”
Ben-Gvir posted on Sunday night, “The attorney general’s leak to Baruch Kra of Channel 13 News, indicating she will ‘require’ the prime minister to fire me, reveals what was already clear: Channel 13 and the attorney general are working together to overthrow the right-wing government.
“After they failed at the ballot box, they are attempting to do so through probes against the prime minister, ‘investigations’ against me, and at the High Court, whose position is known in advance,” Ben-Gvir stated. “The attorney general and the left-wing media are no longer hiding their mafia methods — I again call on the prime minister to remove the attorney general, who works against the government, from her position.”
Baharav-Miara and officials in the Attorney General’s Office say that Ben-Gvir is breaking Israeli law and exceeding his powers as police minister by meddling in law enforcement and delivering direct orders to officers, which would also violate court injunctions banning him from doing so, in particular when it comes to anti-government protests.
Netanyahu tasked Justice Minister Yariv Levin last week with finding a solution to what he said was the incessant opposition of Baharav-Miara to his government.
The prime minister’s request to Levin followed a Cabinet meeting on Nov. 4 in which several ministers expressed frustration with the attorney general, according to leaked reports of the meeting.
A statement released by Netanyahu’s office after the meeting read: “Following severe criticism by the government ministers of the attorney general, the prime minister clarified that the attorney general is expected to assist the government in implementing the government’s decisions and promoting bills on its behalf — and not the other way around.”
According to Israeli law, the attorney general does not work for the prime minister, as opposed to in the United States, where the attorney general is an agent of the executive branch. Netanyahu and other ministers have often clashed with Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by the government led by then-premier Naftali Bennett.
