Attorney General to High Court: Netanyahu should be made to explain why he hasn’t fired Ben Gvir

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asks the High Court of Justice to demand an explanation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as to why he hasn’t fired National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whom she says has systematically worked to undermine the independence of the police.

She issues the request in a 65-page document as part of a case in which petitioners are arguing for Ben Gvir’s dismissal from the National Security Ministry, where he oversees the Israel Police.

Baharav-Miara notes that the court recently clarified that the operational independence of the police and the need to prevent political interference in their day-to-day operations were “fundamental principles in the structure of the democratic Israeli regime.”

And yet, she charges in an attached statement, Ben Gvir is “abusing his position to improperly influence the activities of the Israel Police in the most sensitive areas of law enforcement and investigations, and is violating basic democratic principles.”

As such, she says, “a conditional order is needed that would require the prime minister to explain why he is not removing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from his position.”

Baharav-Miara has long asserted that Ben Gvir is violating the principle of police independence, and last month said that the claims of petitioners asking the court to order Ben Gvir’s dismissal from office have become “anchored in a legal and factual foundation.”

Shortly after Baharav-Miara files the document to the High Court, Ben Gvir takes to X to write: “Criminal, I’m ignoring you!” in an apparent response to the attorney general.