Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, on Tuesday rejected outright a petition that sought to bar Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from bringing the dismissal of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Ronen Bar to a vote in the Cabinet later this week.
In doing so, the justices also ruled against the position of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who had sought to delay the vote until after a full analysis of the “factual and legal basis” for Bar’s dismissal, as well as of Netanyahu’s “authority to address the matter at this time.”
“During the Cabinet meeting scheduled to discuss this issue, the legal advisor to the government [Baharav-Miara] will be able to present to the government members all the necessary legal considerations for making their decision. It is possible that after her position is heard, no decision will be made, or a different decision will be reached,” the ruling read.
The justices added, “The petitioners must wait for the final decision of the government, which is the competent authority, and only after that will the path open for them to subject the decision to judicial review.”
The petition was submitted by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel NGO, which previously spearheaded demonstrations against the Netanyahu government’s now largely shelved judicial reform agenda.
The government meeting on Bar’s dismissal was initially scheduled for Wednesday and was subsequently brought forward to Tuesday evening. However, following the collapse of the ceasefire with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the meeting was delayed to a yet-to-be-determined date.
Netanyahu announced on Sunday his intention to dismiss Bar, declaring, “I have an ongoing lack of trust in the Shin Bet chief.”
According to his office, Netanyahu summoned Bar to his office for an urgent meeting on Sunday night, where he informed him that the Cabinet would formally consider his dismissal later this week.
Baharav-Miara, whose dismissal the government will discuss next week, subsequently informed Netanyahu that he could not fire Bar “until the factual and legal basis underlying your decision is fully examined, as well as your authority to address the matter at this time.”
The government’s freedom of action in this regard is limited by “the extraordinary sensitivity of the issue, its unprecedented nature, the concern that the process may be tainted by illegality and conflict of interest,” said Baharav-Miara, adding that the “role of the head of the Shin Bet is not a personal trust position serving the prime minister.”
According to Section 3 of Israel’s General Security Service Law, the government has the authority to “terminate the term of office of the head of the [Israel Security] Service before the end of his term.”
