The Israeli Supreme Court on Monday canceled a hearing on the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, while urging the government to reconsider her firing, as well as the procedure for it.
The Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government until Sept. 14 to rescind the dismissal decision or commit to following the procedure that was previously used to appoint and fire attorney generals.
While the government has the authority to fire an AG, in the past, such a decision could only be made on the recommendation of a professional committee composed of justices, lawyers, academics and ministers.
However, in a unanimous decision on June 8, the Cabinet amended the procedure by which an attorney general may be dismissed, so that the government could do so on the recommendation of a panel of five ministers.
After the government on Aug. 4 formally voted to sack Baharav-Miara under this new procedure, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision would not take effect until the justices reviewed the procedure and the reasons for her dismissal.
“Meanwhile, no changes will take place in the powers of the attorney general or her working relationship with the government,” Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg wrote in an Aug. 4 ruling.
Monday’s interim order went further by pressing Jerusalem to act and setting a deadline, while also canceling the scheduled hearing, which the government had vowed to boycott and did not file a response for.
If the government decides not to respond to the unanimous court decision, then it will be given the opportunity to submit affidavits to the court by Oct. 30, after which a final ruling can be issued, the court said.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin responded sharply to the court’s intervention, saying on Monday night that the latest ruling was unsurprising and denouncing it as an “absurd spectacle.”
“All the claims about procedure are just an excuse,” stated Levin, adding that “there was no effective cooperation between the dismissed attorney general and the government. ... It is impossible to force the government, especially in the midst of war, to work with her even for one more day.”
“The government, and only the government, will decide who its legal adviser will be,” the Israeli justice minister vowed, using the official Hebrew term for the position of attorney general in the Jewish state.
Baharav-Miara’s firing followed ministerial panels in July led by Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli, which had voted to recommend that the government fire the attorney general.
Baharav-Miara was summoned twice within one week for a hearing, but failed to appear, claiming the procedure established by the government was illegal.
Chikli said that the calls for Baharav-Miara’s firing came against the backdrop of “inappropriate conduct and substantial and prolonged differences of opinion between the government and the attorney general, creating a situation that prevents effective cooperation.”
Israel’s governing coalition has been at loggerheads with the attorney general since its formation after the general election of Nov. 1, 2022.
Baharav-Miara had been appointed to the post by the previous government led by then-Israeli leader Naftali Bennett in 2022.
