AG to court: Move allowing Netanyahu to select civil service commissioner is illegal
Baharav-Miara says last month’s decision lets government pick candidate without ‘minimum professional threshold conditions of experience, skills or suitability’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to directly appoint the next civil service commissioner, rather than delegate the choice to a selection committee as is standard practice, is illegal, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said on Friday, responding to High Court petitions on the matter.
“The government’s decision creates a new situation whereby the prime minister will be able to choose a person he wishes to be appointed to the position who does not have to meet minimum professional threshold conditions of experience, skills or suitability,” the attorney general said in a statement, alongside her more detailed legal response to the petitions.
“For this reason, the government’s decision, deviating from the method of appointing the commissioner in the past, is illegal,” the statement continued, calling the proposed change “a significant step in the transformation of the civil service into a political system.”
In a unanimous vote last month despite strenuous opposition from Baharav-Miara, the cabinet approved a measure allowing Netanyahu to directly nominate a candidate, who would then be examined by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee to the Civil Service.
The Movement for Quality Government, a good governance watchdog, condemned the move, calling it “a serious violation of the principles of good governance,” and accusing the cabinet of “trampling on the rule of law and the values of democracy.”
In remarks released by the Prime Minister’s Office following the vote, Netanyahu asserted that the responsibility to choose a civil service commissioner lay with “the nation,” represented by the elected government, and argued there was no reason to grant civil service professionals a say in the matter.
Amid the ongoing controversy, the government is expected to pass a three-month extension of current civil service chief Daniel Hershkowitz’s term, which is currently set to end on September 10.
Hershkowitz was approved by the government in 2018 after a committee, headed by retired judge Hanan Efrati, rejected Netanyahu’s first choice for the job.
The current government has repeatedly clashed with Baharav-Miara since entering office in December 2022, and reports have surfaced numerous times that Netanyahu was considering firing the attorney general.
According to Kan news, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir discussed the possibility of firing Baharav-Miara last month, following the civil service vote.
At the same meeting, Levin was said to seek the resurrection of his judicial overhaul plans, which drew a fierce and sustained backlash in 2023, drawing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets in weekly protests.
The effort was shelved following Hamas’s October 7 attack, which started the ongoing war against the terror group.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
