A ministerial panel that was scheduled to consider the dismissal of Israeli Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara on Tuesday has been postponed due to the war with Iran, Hebrew media reported on Sunday.
The decision to cancel Tuesday’s hearing was made in the wake of the IDF Home Front Command instructions prohibiting public gatherings and in light of the extensive damage caused by Iranian missile strikes, according to Ynet.
The attorney-general was expected to file her response to Jerusalem’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, later on Sunday in response to a request for an interim order against the proceedings.
The government does not plan to submit a response to the High Court regarding the interim order, according to Maariv, with a source telling the Israeli newspaper: “We are at war, we are not dealing with this.”
Last week, Israel’s Cabinet backed a plan to circumvent an independent public committee responsible for appointing and firing attorney generals, in a move Baharav-Miara’s deputy argued was illegal.
The plan, proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin of the ruling Likud Party, allows for attorney generals to be dismissed by a committee led by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel and Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli.
Israel’s right-wing coalition has been at loggerheads with the attorney general since its formation after the general election on Nov. 1, 2022.
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 to the post in February 2022 by the coalition led by then-premier Naftali Bennett.