Netanyahu's cabinet starts to oust legal chief as protests grow

Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday took the first big step toward dismissing the attorney general in the latest attempt to reduce judicial oversight over the government’s actions.

Moves to fire the nation’s top security and legal officials — including Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar — sparked nationwide demonstrations over the weekend. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to oppose what they see as an alarming dilution of checks and balances that poses a threat to Israel’s democracy.

Protests, the largest since the start of war in October 2023, continued Sunday in Jerusalem as the cabinet voted on a no-confidence resolution against Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s attorney general since 2022.

Social and political unrest is on the rise after Israel resumed fighting in Gaza last week, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. The military renewed air strikes on the Palestinian territory and has launched a limited ground operation as well. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war have passed 50,000.

Netanyahu, though, is largely brushing off public displays of opposition after recently securing a firm majority of 68 out of 120 seats in parliament after Itamar Ben Gvir rejoined the government.

Negotiations on a new temporary ceasefire or a permanent end to the conflict are at a standstill, and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel will permanently annex land in Gaza if Hamas — designated a terror organization by the U.S. and other countries— keeps up its refusal to free Israeli hostages.

The government resolution on Baharav-Miara expresses “a lack of confidence in the attorney general in light of her inappropriate conduct and given substantial and prolonged differences of opinion between her and the government which prevent effective cooperation.” To oust her, the government needs to reconvene after deferring the matter to the same committee who appointed her and hearing its recommendation.

Netanyahu didn’t take part in Sunday’s deliberations given his conflict on interest while he’s on trial for corruption charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which Baharav-Miara oversees.

Helming the meeting was Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who launched an unprecedented broadside on the attorney general in the form of an 86-page document presented to cabinet.

He blamed Baharav-Miara for the creation of a “gas lighting democracy,” saying that “while the attorney general exalts the values of democracy, in reality she has crushed to the ground the very principles in whose name she claimed to act.”

Baharav-Miara and Netanyahu’s cabinet have clashed multiple times over the past two years as she repeatedly objected to their policies. She refused to back the bills meant to support the former judicial overhaul; urged the government to draft Orthodox Jewish men into the military, upsetting some of Netanyahu’s closest allies in parliament; and opposed the reappointment of Ben Gvir as minister for national security, saying he has politicized the police.

Levin said that under Baharav-Miara’s leadership, “the attorney general’s office has become a tyrannical political authority. The AG acts as the long arm of the government’s opponents and does not hesitate to use any means to thwart the will of the voter.”

Baharav-Miara, Israel’s first female attorney general, boycotted the meeting but sent a response saying that “the government wants to be above the law. We will not be deterred.”

Netanyahu’s government last week unanimously voted to oust Bar, also citing “mistrust,” saying the intelligence agency chief had a “misunderstanding of the subordination of the service and its head to the political echelon.”

The decision was placed on hold Friday by the Supreme Court until judges decide on multiple petitions against Bar’s firing. They claim — as did the attorney general, who was disregarded — that Netanyahu should be prevented from firing Bar given a Shin Bet probe into possible ties between his close aides and Qatar.

Netanyahu didn’t directly comment on the court’s decision but said in a post on X Friday that “Israel is a state of law and according to that law, the government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet.

Some cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, went further, saying that “High Court judges will not conduct the war or determine its commanders. Period.” The comments stirred concerns that the government would disobey the court order and proceed with firing Bar, plunging Israel into a constitutional crisis.

The Israel Business Forum, a group of 200 large companies, threatened to bring the economy to a standstill if the government doesn’t respect the court order, and an organization representing technology companies and venture capital funds said it may strike. The Histadrut, a labor federation, said the government should act in accordance with the court ruling.

Israel’s Supreme Court has been under constant attack since Netanyahu’s latest government took office in late 2022, including an attempted judicial overhaul aimed at diluting its power. While those reforms were shelved after Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza started in October 2023, they’ve recently been revived.

Later this week Israel’s parliament plans to vote on a bill that would change the composition of the Judge Selection Committee, giving the executive branch more power over the appointment of Supreme Court justices, by canceling the veto right judicial representatives have over them.

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