Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has begun formal proceedings to sack Israel’s attorney-general, escalating its attacks on the country’s highest legal authority whose office instigated the premier’s long-running corruption trial.
Justice minister Yariv Levin late on Wednesday called for the cabinet to pass a “no confidence” motion against attorney-general Gali Baharav-Miara, citing “inappropriate” behaviour and conduct that made “effective co-operation” impossible.
Levin said in a letter that Baharav-Miara had created “a gaslighting democracy” that paid lip service to democratic values but in reality “shattered them to dust . . . just like the church in the middle ages that supposedly worked ‘in the name of God’.”
The move to target the attorney-general — who is both legal adviser to the government and head of the public prosecution — is set to deepen the crisis in Israel over democratic norms and the rule of law. It is also likely to spur a severe constitutional crisis that pits the Netanyahu government against the judicial branch.
Baharav-Miara’s predecessor indicted Netanyahu on several corruption charges in 2019 stemming from alleged favour trading with wealthy businesspeople and media moguls. This set off a years-long battle by the prime minister against what he has termed a “leftwing deep-state” conspiracy by the police, media, courts and legal officials to unseat him.
Netanyahu’s trial, in which he only began testifying in December, is soon to enter its fifth year with no end in sight.
The attorney-general has been in the crosshairs of Netanyahu’s latest government since early 2023 when a move to radically overhaul the country’s judicial and legal institutions was met with nine straight months of nationwide mass demonstrations.
The government’s intention at the time was to dilute the authority of the attorney-general position, as well as to remove the Supreme Court’s oversight powers including the sacking of senior civil servants.
Opponents of the reforms alleged that it was a deeply unconstitutional power grab by the executive branch, with the primary goal of putting a halt to Netanyahu’s trial.
The government put the reforms on hold after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack and the outbreak of the war in Gaza — yet its ire against Baharav-Miara never waned.
The attorney-general has consistently ruled against the government, deeming large parts of its agenda illegal or unconstitutional. The Netanyahu government, in turn, began ignoring Baharav-Miara’s rulings, which according to Israeli legal norms should be binding.
Senior ministers extolled the intent to sack the attorney-general, calling it long overdue.
Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, said in a statement from the US: “It’s the right step, so important, so necessary. We need to come here to Washington to learn from President Trump how a real democracy works, where public-sector workers and bureaucrats serve the policy of the elected officials and do not undermine them time and time again.”
Opposition leaders slammed the move, with Yair Lapid calling it “criminal, violent and unconstitutional”.
“Yariv Levin decided to dismantle Israeli society during wartime. Levin, one of those chiefly responsible for the October 7 disaster, has learned nothing. He is harming the country, harming the rule of law, harming the war effort,” the leader of the opposition wrote on X.
Analysts cautioned that firing the attorney-general, which has never happened in Israeli history, would be deeply complicated and cause an unprecedented legal quagmire.
Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the five-person advisory committee that appointed the attorney-general would have to meet and weigh in on the case.
He also said that while the committee’s rulings were not legally binding, the matter would almost certainly land in front of the Supreme Court, which would be likely to rule against the government.
“It’s hard to see how [firing the attorney-general] can be seen as reasonable and not a severe conflict of interest,” Lurie said.