Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, rejected a demand by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to bar Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from interviewing replacements for the position of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Ronen Bar on Tuesday night.
The interim decision by Justice Gila Canfy-Steinitz rejected Netanyahu’s request to immediately cancel the court-ordered freeze of Bar’s removal while rejecting Baharav-Miara’s demand that the ruling be expanded to include a ban on the premier interviewing possible new candidates.
“After the High Court of Justice rejected the attempt by the legal advisor [Baharav-Miara] to prevent the start of the process to appoint a new head of the Shin Bet, the prime minister will begin interviewing candidates for the position of Shin Bet director tomorrow,” said Omer Dostri, spokesman for the Netanyahu’s Office.
Yossi Fuchs, Netanyahu’s Cabinet secretary, told Israel’s Channel 12 News, “The attempt by the legal advisor to expand the High Court ruling has failed. The prime minister can immediately begin the process of appointing a new Shin Bet head, conduct interviews and present a candidate to the advisory committee.”
Fuchs said the process would take two weeks, noting that it would not have been possible for Netanyahu to appoint a replacement ahead of a High Court hearing in the case that is scheduled for April 10 “in any case.”
“Therefore, there is no significance to the continuation of the temporary injunction until the hearing,” Fuchs said in his statement to the channel.
The Cabinet unanimously approved Netanyahu’s proposal to dismiss Bar on March 20 due to the prime minister’s “persistent personal and professional distrust” of the Jewish state’s internal security chief, which was described as detrimental to both the government and security.
Bar’s firing was temporarily frozen on March 21 following legal challenges of the Cabinet decision before the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.
The Supreme Court previously rejected a petition that sought to prevent Netanyahu from bringing Bar’s dismissal to a vote in the Cabinet.
In doing so, the justices also ruled against the legal position of Baharav-Miara, who had attempted to delay the Cabinet session until after a full analysis of the “factual and legal basis” for Bar’s dismissal, as well as of the prime minister’s “authority to address the matter at this time.”
Netanyahu has slammed Baharav-Miara’s attempts to override the government’s mandate to dismiss the Shin Bet head as a “dangerous denial” of the “express authority” of the Jewish state’s elected officials.
