Coalition cancels vote to choose candidate for AG oversight panel, delaying her ouster

Coalition efforts to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara hit a snag on Tuesday due to infighting over who would represent the Knesset on the panel that is responsible for selecting an attorney general and would also play a substantial role in the dismissal process, with the parliamentary deliberation postponed by at least two weeks.

Cabinet members voted unanimously last month in favor of a no-confidence motion against Baharav-Miara, in a move designed by the government to hasten her dismissal from office.

The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on selecting the Knesset’s representative to the five-member public committee. But committee chairman Simcha Rothman, from the coalition’s Religious Zionism party, first delayed and then canceled the vote after the coalition failed to agree on a single compromise candidate out of several lawmakers who submitted their candidacies.

Among the MKs in the running for the position were MK Ofir Katz of Likud, Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal, Otzma Yehudit’s Yitzhak Kroizer and Noam’s Avi Maoz.

The public committee comprises a former Supreme Court justice chosen by the president of the court with the agreement of the justice minister; a former justice minister or attorney general chosen by the government; an MK chosen by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; a representative of the Israel Bar Association (IBA); and a law professor chosen by the deans of Israel’s university law faculties.

The committee is currently missing two of those five members — a former justice minister or attorney general, and an MK. Filling these empty spots is a necessary prerequisite to ousting Baharav-Miara, as the cabinet resolution that governs the process explicitly states that the matter must be discussed by the committee before it is brought to the government.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Rothman’s Knesset committee said that “the selection process is starting over” and that a new date for the vote would be set, “which will be published at least two weeks in advance, and nominations will be allowed up to a week before the selection date.”

As it moves to get rid of Baharav-Miara, the coalition has also fired Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, but the High Court of Justice on Tuesday issued a fresh injunction saying the spy chief must remain in office until further notice. The justices gave the government and the attorney general until April 20 to reach a compromise over the legal dispute surrounding the unprecedented vote last month to fire Bar, which Baharav-Miara had said ministers could not do without first consulting a key advisory committee.

Baharav-Miara did not represent the coalition in the High Court hearing on the petitions against Bar’s dismissal, since she had not endorsed his firing, and the coalition instead hired independent counsel.