AG calls on police chief to freeze ‘illegal’ dismissal of force’s legal adviser
‘The severity of this incident… cannot be understated,’ says Gali Baharav-Miara after commissioner Daniel Levy claims he doesn’t have to obey her legal instructions
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Tuesday instructed Police Commissioner Daniel Levy to freeze the process he has initiated to dismiss the Israel Police’s legal adviser, telling him his actions were illegal and that he was legally bound to abide by her instructions.
“The severity of this incident in which the Israel Police — which is responsible for obedience to the law — ignores legal instructions through a claim of independence, cannot be understated,” the attorney general declared in a letter to Levy.
The police commissioner announced last week he was removing Assistant Commissioner Elazar Kahana, the force’s top legal adviser, from his post and instead putting him in charge of the prosecution department, despite not being a candidate for the position. Baharav-Miara then said she was blocking the move, but Levy said he would ignore her order since, he claimed, she did not have the authority to intervene.
In her letter, the attorney general insisted that Levy’s claims regarding police independence do not mean that the police, including the commissioner, were “independent of the rule of law or [of] the Israel Police being subject to the law.”
And she said that instructions from the attorney general over a concern that actions of a government agency were illegal are “a foundational principal” of proper administration in Israel, citing Supreme Court rulings to buttress her argument. Baharav-Miara also pointed out that the police legal adviser comes under the authority of the Attorney General’s Office, and that removing him from this position therefore requires consultation with the attorney general.
“All processes to remove the legal adviser to the police from his position and filling the position anew must therefore be frozen” until the examination of the matter can be completed, Baharav-Miara instructed Levy. Any other action would be illegal, she added.
In response, Levy said that he made his thoughts on the situation clear last week, “and has nothing to add on the issue.”
The tussle between Baharav-Miara and Levy has further escalated the clash between the attorney general and far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over the latter’s efforts to promote an officer indicted for throwing a stun grenade at anti-government protesters in March 2023, injuring a woman.
Baharav-Miara has called Ben Gvir’s decision to promote Police Superintendent Meir Suissa and appoint him as commander of the South Tel Aviv Police Station “illegal,” and told the High Court of Justice last month that the far-right minister should not be allowed independent counsel to fight a lower court order freezing his decision.
Kahana also opposed Suissa’s promotion, saying it contravened police regulations due to the ongoing legal proceedings against him.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.