‘Constitutional crisis’: Netanyahu warns AG against reported bid to fire Ben Gvir
Lapid calls far-right police minister a ‘danger to the people of Israel,’ while Democrats party leader Yair Golan accuses the government of operating like a ‘criminal syndicate’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s support for the removal of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from his post was causing “a constitutional crisis,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told ministers during a cabinet meeting on Sunday evening.
According to Hebrew press accounts of the meeting, Ben Gvir complained that Baharav-Miara “wants to bring down the government,” while Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem insisted that there was “only one answer: fire her.”
In response, Netanyahu pledged not to fire the far-right minister, adding that he did not know “a faster way to bring about a constitutional crisis than trying to fire a minister without an indictment.”
Baharav-Miara is set to tell Netanyahu that he must fire Ben Gvir for repeatedly violating the law while in office, unless he changes his mode of conduct, Channel 13 reported on Sunday evening.
The attorney general is formulating the state’s response to a petition filed in September to the High Court of Justice demanding that Ben Gvir be removed from office for repeatedly intervening in the functioning of the police in a manner the court has prohibited.
In March 2023, the court ordered Ben Gvir to halt operational orders to the police on how to respond to anti-government protests, and issued an injunction against such orders in January 2024.
According to the Channel 13 report, the attorney general and the State Attorney’s Office believe that Ben Gvir has violated the law through his actions, as the minister entrusted with responsibility for the police. Baharav-Miara is expected to present Netanyahu with a collection of Ben Gvir’s alleged illegal actions that may lead to his ouster, the report said.
However, she is reportedly seeking to “exhaust” all avenues for addressing the problem before filing her response to the court, including what would appear to be a final warning to Netanyahu that Ben Gvir must change his behavior if he is to avoid a court ruling ordering the ultranationalist national security minister be fired, a move that could put Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in danger.
The report said that while Baharav-Miara was originally meant to file the state’s response to the petitions by Sunday, she requested a seven-day extension.
Ben Gvir said in response that the attorney general and Channel 13 news were “working together to topple the right-wing leadership,” and added that he was again calling on Netanyahu “to fire the attorney general who is working against the government.”
Asked about Netanyahu’s reported warning of a constitutional crisis, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid told The Times of Israel that while he did not know what the prime minister had said in Sunday evening’s cabinet meeting, he was sure that Ben Gvir constituted “a danger to the people of Israel.”
“But that decision is a decision for the High Court and if that is the decision of the court, it needs to be obeyed because that is the law,” he said. “I’m not convinced that the government will disobey the court, because that’s beyond the pale and the end of the State of Israel as we know it as a democracy.”
The report about Baharav-Miara’s intention to call for Ben Gvir’s ouster came shortly before Channel 13 aired an investigative report detailing the far-right politician’s alleged violations of the law in his activities as minister, after a legal push by Ben Gvir to bar it from publication was rejected.
Separately, the Haaretz daily reported Sunday that Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed’s ouster last year was the brainchild of Ben Gvir’s wife Ayala and chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman.
Responding to Sunday’s report about Ben Gvir’s possible ouster, MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Otzma Yehudit accused the minister’s antagonists of seeking to undermine what she said were his national security policy achievements.
The attorney general is “simply going after him” but “it won’t help her,” Har-Melech told The Times of Israel, adding that in case of an attempted impeachment, she expected Netanyahu and his government to take “very clear” action.
Members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have long sought to oust Baharav-Miara, who has repeatedly engaged in conflict with the coalition over various legislative efforts and policy decisions.
Last week, Netanyahu reportedly ordered that a “solution” be found for Baharav-Miara’s “adversarial” relationship with his government, requesting that Justice Minister Yariv Levin prepare a “solution” to the issue — potentially hinting at a move to oust her from her position or bypass her decisions.
The Prime Minister’s Office later appeared to walk back the comment amid fears it might violate Netanyahu’s agreement to abstain from top legal appointments while he is on trial for corruption.
Responding to news reports about various scandals involving Ben Gvir and Netanyahu, Yair Golan, chairman of the opposition Democrats party, said on Monday that Israel is run like a “criminal syndicate.”
“Alongside the criminal syndicate led by the prime minister, yesterday, we were exposed to another criminal syndicate,” Golan told reporters in the Knesset, stating that “we saw how a violent and extremist populist runs the Israel Police. How he cheaply manipulates the prime minister, while putting the citizens of Israel at risk. How he is motivated solely by media considerations and likes.”
In recent weeks, Netanyahu’s aides in the PMO have faced accusations including mishandling and leaking classified documents to the press, editing meeting transcripts, and blackmailing a senior military officer. He has said the allegations amounted to “a wild and unbridled attack.”
Jeremy Sharon and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
