AG’s office slams bill allowing government to fire senior officials in first 100 days of government

By Sam Sokol 13 July 2025, 2:48 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon attends a Constitution, Law and Justice committee meeting in the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Attorney General’s Office harshly criticizes a coalition-backed bill allowing the government, within its first 100 days in office, to terminate the tenure of the most senior security officials and public officers.

If passed into law, the bill, which was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation earlier today, “will lead to the complete politicization of the most senior positions in the public service and the security establishment,” says the Attorney General’s Office.

The bill would seriously impair the ability of senior officials, including defense officials, “to present a true picture and objective professional assessments without fear,” the Attorney General’s Office’s statement adds.

Discussion over the bill came as the government is working to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and to appoint David Zini as the new chief of the Shin Bet security service.

Under the terms of the bill, a government in the first 100 days after taking office could terminate the tenure of the attorney general, IDF chief of staff, head of the Shin Bet, head of the Mossad, police commissioner, head of the Israel Prison Service, Civil Service commissioner, and head of the budget department in the Finance Ministry.

In a letter to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon argues that the coalition has been making a concerted push to change the civil service from an independent and nonpolitical entity “to one that is subject to the full control of the political echelon” — a move he alleges will harm the rule of law and human rights.

In addition to allowing the government to fire senior officials, it would also under certain circumstances allow it to retroactively change some of these officials’ decisions, creating a situation in which “the government would effectively become the attorney general, the head of the General Security Service, the police commissioner, the [IDF] chief of staff, and so on,” and would therefore give the political echelon powers that profoundly violate “the core foundations of Israel’s democratic governance.”

While the bill is somewhat vague on the procedure, it does stipulate that under certain conditions, the decisions of terminated officials will be able to be retroactively changed by a newly installed government.