Israeli Government Sets Stage for Attorney General Showdown, Raising Eyebrows, Legal Alarms
The Israeli government has taken a dramatic step in its ongoing war with the judiciary, summoning Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to a dismissal hearing set for June 17 under a newly minted process that legal experts are already calling illegitimate. In a twist that feels more like political theater than due process, a five-member ministerial committee—handpicked by the same government trying to fire her—will now decide her fate.
The move comes after Justice Minister Yariv Levin admitted he couldn’t pull together the original statutory committee required by law to oversee the attorney general’s removal. Instead of shelving the plan, the government changed the rules mid-game, bypassing the usual checks and balances in favor of a more politically loyal body. Critics are calling it a blatant attempt to strong-arm the legal system.
“Unlawful,” declared the Attorney General’s Office, warning that the new process “removes oversight over governmental power.” Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon went further, calling the resolution part of a broader campaign to “weaken and deter” legal gatekeepers. He described it as a “tectonic shift” that could politicize what has traditionally been an independent and apolitical role.
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The committee—led by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amihai Chikli and stacked with loyalists like National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir—will hear Baharav-Miara’s case, but few believe this is really about firing her. Instead, many see it as a calculated ploy to pick another fight with the Supreme Court, which is almost certain to freeze the new process in response to petitions from watchdog groups.
So why provoke a crisis the government knows it likely won’t win? One word: politics.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition unraveling over ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions, this manufactured legal battle offers a convenient distraction. It gives Netanyahu and his allies a familiar punching bag—the judiciary—and a rallying cry for their base just in case new elections are on the horizon. Better to campaign against the “liberal elite” than explain why some citizens are exempt from military service while others fight and die in Gaza.
Levin’s resolution claims Baharav-Miara’s legal positions have “paralyzed the government’s work,” especially during wartime. But from the outside, it looks less like dysfunction and more like a deliberate strategy: Provoke the courts, stir up outrage, and cast the judiciary as the villain standing in the way of “the people.”
