Critics see the vote without confidence in the context of wider measures to weaken the judicial controls of the Government of Netanyahu.
The cabinet of Israel has adopted a vote of non-confidence against the prosecutor General Gali Baharav-Miara, said the country’s Minister of Justice, in a first stage in the abolition of another vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government.
The vote on Sunday comes only two days after the government rejected Ronen Bar, the chief of Shin Bet, the country’s internal security agency – a decision fixed later by the Supreme Court.
Baharav-Miara, the highest legal official in the country, is accused of “inappropriate behavior” and “substantial differences of substantial opinion between the government and the Attorney General, which prevents effective collaboration”, according to the Prime Minister’s office.
The Attorney General, who did not attend the meeting of the cabinet, refuted the complaints and accused the government of trying to operate above the law. The vote of non-confidence aimed to acquire “an unlimited power, in the context of a broader decision to weaken the judicial branch” and “promote loyalty to the government,” she said in a letter sent to the cabinet before the vote.
The vote has not yet been reflected in its dismissal. A committee will examine the arguments and keep an audience to examine the case. If the committee did not support its dismissal, the Supreme Court could still block it.
The attempted dismissal of Shin Bet chief and the Attorney General attracted thousands of demonstrators who say that unprecedented measures are a threat to democracy and part of a repression against the few remaining voices criticized towards Netanyahu.
The Prime Minister, on the other hand, cited a “lack of confidence in class” in Bar, which should testify on April 8. Netanyahu insisted that it is up to the government to decide who will lead Shin’s bet.
Critics say that the Prime Minister has moved against Bar because of his government criticisms on the failure of security that allowed Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest day in the history of the country. They also allege that the current trial in Netanyahu is at stake.
Shin Bet investigated the close associates of Netanyahu suspected of having received money linked to Qatar.
Bar declared in a letter that his evidence was motivated by the desire to stop the “continuation of the truth” on the events which preceded on October 7. Shin Bet this month published a report which recognized that he should have thwarted the assault led by Hamas while criticizing Netanyahu for helping to create the conditions of the attacks.
Netanyahu’s office has rejected accusations such as “false news”.
