Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara warned the government that its expectation of the legal advisory to permit illegalities is mistaken and that Israeli democracy is undergoing essential changes at the annual conference of the Israel Bar Association in Eilat on Monday.
“We aid the government in manifesting its stated policies, but the expectation that we will give it a hand in efforts to circumvent the law is mistaken. Publicly, an expectation like this is not legitimate,” she explained.
She added, “The job of the attorney-general is to follow the law, not to advance a certain political agenda which doesn’t align with the law.”
“The point is to provide a legal safety net that allows the government and security forces to operate as freely as possible – within the bounds of international law,” she emphasized.
Her comments come amid fierce attempts to fire her and tensions that date back months now between the government trying to exact its policies and the legal advisory blocking some of those policies that don’t align with the law.
Her opponents argue that she is selective in the legislation she blocks. The legal advisory works with all government offices and ministries and is critical to making sure that the final iterations of legislation are legally sound.
Her supporters see her as the bastion standing against a full power grab attempt by the coalition, which would lead to a collapse in the democratic balance of powers in Israel.
She noted that her team has aided the government in legislation in hundreds of cases and that legislation was blocked “only a few” times.
“The claim that the legal advisory is not cooperating with the government is detached from reality,” she said. “Our professional obligation to aid the government in implementing its policies does not, for a second, take away from our responsibility to make sure it is doing so legally and in the public’s best interests.”
She further warned that due to the Israel-Hamas War, the public’s attention has gone to that, understandably, but that the “regime change has been advanced dramatically, as has the incitement against and belittlement of the law.
This is not a warning for the future but a mirror of what is happening on the ground right now. The Israeli system of governance is changing as we speak.”
Yifat Tomer was barred from speaking at the conference by Israel Katz
On Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz barred IDF Military Advocate General (MAG) Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi from speaking at the conference. This was unprecedented, as she speaks every year and is an important voice in the legal defense of IDF policies, especially in the current military climate.
In barring her from speaking, Katz also painted in a political light an event that is usually considered nonpartisan.
Tomer-Yerushalmi underscored that the legal advisory to the government – the body of lawyers that advises every office and ministry to make sure that all legislation and every move is legally sound – has made the war its top priority since October 7.
Baharav-Miara said that Tomer-Yerushalmi should have been there, as “her voice is a massive contribution to the war policies, and there is none quite like her who can fight off the claims made against Israel in the international arena.”
The attorney-general also touched on the issue of draft-dodging by the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community, saying that “a situation where the state is increasing the burden on those already serving, while an entire sector doesn’t share in it, is a crass blow to equality.”
She also called for effective sanctions against draft dodgers.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.