Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara is working “persistently and openly” to “paralyze the government’s executive capabilities and bring about its downfall,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Tuesday.
Sa’ar’s comments came in response to an opinion issued by the attorney-general on Monday, according to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is legally barred from appointing a new Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head due to a conflict of interests.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had decided to appoint Maj.-Gen. David Zini to the position, despite a High Court ruling a day earlier that the “Qatargate” investigation put him in a conflict of interest with regards to firing the outgoing Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.
Sa’ar’s accusations were noteworthy, as he was responsible for Baharav-Miara’s appointment to the position in his position as Justice Minister in the previous government.
Sa’ar claimed that a “senior” official in the Justice Ministry had told him that Baharav-Miara had decided to “go all the way” in her opposition to the government.
“The reasoning presented by Baharav-Miara and [Deputy Attorney-General Gil] Limon is a supposed ‘conflict of interests’ involving the prime minister due to the Qatargate affair, despite the fact that the prime minister is not a suspect in the case,” Sa’ar wrote on X/Twitter.
“The very claim of a conflict of interests due to an investigation into people close to the prime minister is, in itself, far-reaching. In any case, any novice legal scholar knows that this alleged conflict of interest could have been ‘neutralized’ through much more proportionate measures instead of completely disqualifying the prime minister’s involvement ‘in any way’ in the appointment of the head of the security agency he is legally mandated to oversee,” the foreign minister continued.
“For example, the attorney-general could have ruled that the new Shin Bet chief would not be involved in the investigation at all.
“The proposal to transfer the appointment authority to another minister makes a mockery of the explicit provisions of the law, which Baharav-Miara and Limon have ignored,” Sa’ar continued.
A-G deserves title of 'Leader of the Opposition'
In response to the A-G’s opinion that it was “doubtful” whether Zini could be appointed to the position, Sa’ar wrote, “What remains of the legal provisions and the prime minister’s responsibility in a key security domain when fundamental powers are stripped from him so casually by those who are supposed to provide him with legal counsel?"
“The Knesset was elected by the people. The government serves by virtue of the Knesset’s confidence. The continued weakening of these institutions turns Israel into a caricature of a democratic regime. An attorney-general who persistently and openly works to paralyze the government’s executive capabilities and bring about its downfall does not function as a legal adviser. By now, she is far more deserving of another distinguished title for her actual role: Leader of the Opposition.”
The foreign minister’s comments came alongside those of other ministers, some of whom, including Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Development of the Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, called on Netanyahu to ignore the High Court if it struck down Zini’s appointment.