AG to Ben Gvir: Plan to crack down on protests violates agreed limitations on his powers

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that a policy proposal document he drafted for the police to ban various forms of protest would violate key principles restricting the minister from interference in operative police policy relating to freedom of expression and freedom of protest.

Ben Gvir threatened last week that if Baharav-Miara did not respond to his policy proposal document within five days he would put it into effect.

The new policies would prohibit protesters from blocking highways and major traffic arteries; roads leading to hospitals and isolated towns; emergency routes and Ben Gurion Airport; and also require protesters to obtain approval from the police, whom Ben Gvir oversees, in order to block roads within cities.

In April, the attorney general and the far-right minister agreed on a set of core principles with which the minister would comply in order for her to agree to defend him in the High Court against petitions asking the court to order him removed from office for unlawfully interfering with operative police policies and appointments.

“It can already be said that, on the face of it, the document that was formulated does not comply with these principles,” writes Baharav-Miara’s office to Ben Gvir, adding that it also does not comply with the police commissioner’s position on the minister’s new policy proposals.

“Publishing the policy document in its current form, without a proper consultation process with the police commissioner and the attorney general, would constitute a blatant violation of the principles document, which — as stated in the [new] document itself and as also submitted to the High Court — binds you from the date of its formulation,” the Attorney General’s Office adds.

“Publishing the document would also overstep the authority of the national security minister toward the Israel Police.”