Ben Gvir says AG ‘undermining law and democracy’ in clash over promotion of policewoman

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accuses Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of “undermining the law and democracy” after she demanded the politician stop blocking the promotion of a policewoman who testified in Netanyahu’s trial.

“I will not accept any outside interference by an attorney general who acts unlawfully and seeks to advance police appointments in the same scandalous and unlawful manner in which appointments are fixed up in the State Attorney’s Office,” he writes.

The far-right minister is responding to the attorney general’s letter addressed to him earlier today, in which she urged him to sign off on the promotion of Supt. Rinat Saban, saying “there is no reason to harm the officer who testified in the prime minister’s case.”

She said that Saban’s promotion is explicitly backed by Police Commissioner Danny Levy, who described the issues Ben Gvir raised regarding the police investigator as “unfounded.”

“These concerns were raised in an unusual manner in relation to this officer and were not raised in similar previous cases,” Baharav-Miara wrote. Ben Gvir, earlier this month sent a letter to several media outlets against Saban’s promotion to the rank of chief superintendent, alleging she suffered from “memory issues.”

In March, Saban testified against Netanyahu in court and previously investigated his advisers Jonatan Urich and Ofer Golan on suspicion they harassed Shlomo Filber, a state witness in Case 4000, the most serious of the three cases in the premier’s ongoing corruption trial.

In an unusual statement, the police came out in overt opposition to the minister, calling on outlets to remove supposedly defamatory statements about the officer.

The attorney general faces possible dismissal from her position by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, amid friction between her and many members of the premier’s coalition.