Israel’s attorney-general will be given the opportunity to present her arguments against her dismissal at a ministerial committee meeting on June 17, Israeli Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli said on Monday.
Citing a Cabinet resolution adopted unanimously on March 23, Chikli, who chairs the five-member panel, noted in a letter published by Israel Hayom that Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara’s dismissal was being considered 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.”
In his letter, Chikli requested that Baharav-Miara respond ahead of next week’s hearing to “the claims in the matter that were forwarded to you for your consideration by the minister of justice in advance of the government’s no-confidence resolution dated March 23, 2025.”
On Monday, the 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 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.
The vote on Levin’s proposal came after lawmakers had failed to reach consensus regarding their representative to the committee, while no former attorney generals or justice ministers were prepared to join it either, effectively making it impossible to dismiss Barahav-Miara.
In his Cabinet resolution, Levin cited this deadlock, but also argued that the worsening of the working relationship between the attorney general and the government made the independent committee “unnecessary.”
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.
