At Knesset hearing, AG dismisses accusation of selective enforcement in leak cases

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denied that her office is biased when it comes to investigating suspected leaks of sensitive information, telling lawmakers during a Sunday session of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee that “there is no selective enforcement.”

Addressing the hearing, which was convened to discuss “concerns about selective enforcement in the area of ​​leaks, violation of press freedom and the right to consult with a lawyer by investigative officials and the Shin Bet,” Baharav-Miara insisted that “the law enforcement system operates in a consistent, professional, and pertinent manner, based on fixed standards that are applied in each case according to its circumstances.”

Following February’s announcement that the Shin Bet had begun probing reports of alleged ties between advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar, Netanyahu and his supporters accused both the security service and the attorney general of selective enforcement for probing the premier’s political rivals.

The right has also criticized the April arrest and interrogation of Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein in connection with the affair.

Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein, one of the main suspects in the Qatargate probe, was also charged in November in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of material from a classified IDF document to the German daily Bild to sway public opinion toward Netanyahu.

It is not only allies of the prime minister who have been probed regarding leaks, however.

Earlier this month, police questioned opposition Labor party MK Gilad Kariv over allegations that he had leaked classified information from a closed-door hearing of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

During Sunday’s hearing, Baharav-Miara asserted that the decision to launch such probes depends on a “careful balance” of three primary factors: the potential damage stemming from the leak, the degree of likelihood of catching the perpetrator, and “the chilling effect of actually opening an investigation and the importance of freedom of the press.”

“An examination or investigation will only be opened in cases where the damage or potential damage as a result of the information leak is significant and real, and only where there is an investigative prospect,” she said in a letter to lawmakers submitted ahead of her testimony.

The focus of investigations is usually “on those who released the information in an unauthorized manner, and not on the journalist” who published it, she added.

In response, Likud MK Tally Gotliv declared that Baharav-Miara “knows nothing about criminal matters anyway,” while fellow Likud lawmaker MK Moshe Saada threatened that she herself will “not escape” being investigated.

Despite answering lawmakers’ questions in general, Baharav-Miara and her office declined to give specific answers to queries relating to specific investigations, telling the committee that she had “instructed [her] people not to address questions about pending cases that could influence investigations or reveal details of their content.”

‘We have not received answers’

A list of questions sent ahead of the meeting by committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) “included questions that deal with investigations or pending cases, compounded by baseless assumptions about invented motivations of the law enforcement system,” she said.

Baharav-Miara has long been a target of Netanyahu’s coalition, with ministers voting unanimously in favor of a no-confidence motion against her in March, in a move designed by the government to hasten her dismissal from office.

Responding to her testimony, Rothman, one of the key architect’s of the government’s divisive judicial overhaul program, asserted that her words were “completely identical to the phrase ‘trust me.'”

“The public will judge whether the attorney general answered the questions that were directed to her in advance and during the discussion. In my opinion, she did not,” he said.

“You were asked to provide data on how many investigations have been opened. There are investigations that have ended that you are not providing information about, and other questions that are not related to ongoing investigations. So far, we have not received answers.”

‘Culture of lying [and] politicization’

Speaking to the committee after Baharav-Miara, a representative of the Shin Bet denied that the security agency had ordered a leak investigation into the state’s political leadership while confirming it had launched a probe into the proliferation of extremist ideology among members of the law enforcement community — prompting angry retorts from coalition lawmakers.

The official said that while “there was and still is a concern about the infiltration of Kahanist terrorist elements into law enforcement agencies, and this is what the investigation focused on,” “no information was collected about either a minister or an MK.”

Last month, it was reported that the agency had conducted a covert probe into the possible infiltration of extreme-right elements into the Israel Police following suspected political meddling in the force by the office of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

In response to the official’s remarks, Ben Gvir released a statement claiming that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s “culture of lying, politicization, and the fabrication of cases is destroying the Shin Bet and endangering the State of Israel.”

“Contrary to denials, the Shin Bet spied on ministers, on MKs, on the police commissioner [and] on the Israel Prison Service commissioner, and also — as revealed in the recordings — fabricated a case against an outstanding police officer who refused to cooperate in illegal activity,” Ben Gvir alleged.

“All of this was done with the active cooperation of the attorney general, who recruited the intelligence service for the purpose of fabricating criminal cases, in selective and corrupt ‘investigations,'” he added.

Earlier this month, the Kan public broadcaster published a recording of the chief of the security agency’s Jewish Division telling Cdr. Avishai Mualem — a senior officer in the police’s West Bank division who is suspected of ignoring Jewish nationalist attacks to curry favor with Ben Gvir — saying that radical settler youths were arrested and held without evidence, and calling them “shmucks.”

Last week, Netanyahu posted an additional recording, in which Mualem could be heard telling the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division that “you have nothing on [the suspect].”

Mualem was arrested in January on suspicion of abusing his authority and obstructing an investigation against him for bribery and other offenses.

Addressing law enforcement representatives at the meeting, Rothman said that they had missed “an opportunity to come to the debate with numbers and data that would refute the claims of selective enforcement.”

“You are not convincing anyone but, on the contrary, deepening the feeling that you are acting improperly,” he declared.

‘Violation of the right of MKs’

Sunday’s committee meeting grew heated at various points. After she and other opposition lawmakers were removed from the chamber, National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata protested what she described as the “violation of the right of MKs to express themselves, silencing and mass expulsion of MKs from the opposition.”

In a statement, Tamano-Shata said that it was a low for Rothman, coming “in the midst of an already cynical debate about selective enforcement.”

“Rothman is harming not only MKs but the public’s right to be heard through its elected officials,” she alleged amid a flood of criticism from opposition lawmakers.

Also among the opposition MKs who were removed during the debate was Yesh Atid’s Elazar Stern, who yelled “shame” at Rothman as he was led out of the room.