Attorney general warns Knesset committees abusing power, threatening civil servants

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara warns in a series of letters to the Knesset legal advisor, state prosecutor, and other state legal bodies that Knesset parliamentary committees are being misused to interfere with ongoing criminal investigations and that committee members regularly direct threatening and degrading rhetoric at public servants appearing before the committees, particularly representatives of the judicial system.

In a letter sent today, the attorney calls on Knesset Legal Advisor Sagit Afik to act “without delay” to address these issues, adding that she and her office staff are available to the Knesset “for any discussion you deem appropriate to conduct on the matter.”

This letter follows an earlier letter sent by Baharav-Miara to Afik yesterday about concerns regarding the conduct of Knesset parliamentary committees.

“Under the guise of exercising the Knesset’s oversight powers,” she writes, “law enforcement agencies are invited to discussions concerning specific investigations and are even required to provide information and documents relating to ongoing criminal proceedings.”

Baharav-Miara reiterates that such conduct is “an abuse of the Knesset’s oversight power and does not align with the principle of separation of powers.”

At least one of the impetuses for the attorney general’s letters appears to be a Knesset National Security Committee discussion held last month by Chair MK Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit), concerning Supt. Rinat Saban, a high-ranking officer in the Police Investigations and Intelligence Division, over her obtaining legal representation from the good-governance organization Movement for Quality Government.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the head of Otzma Yehudit, has for months been blocking Saban’s promotion to the rank of chief superintendent due to her testimony against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial last year.

Saban has petitioned the High Court over the matter.

Fogel went ahead with the committee discussion despite Afik’s strong opposition to Knesset bodies holding talks on ongoing legal proceedings, as well as the chair’s inherent conflict of interest in discussing “regarding legal representation for a certain officer against the chairman of your faction in a case that is still pending,” according to a November letter she addressed to Fogel.

This “raises concerns that the committee will be perceived as a tool for political attacks,” she continued.