Ben Gvir’s lawyer tells court that effort to oust him is a bid to overturn will of his voters

Speaking before the High Court of Justice, the lawyer for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir decries petitions demanding the far-right politician’s dismissal as a bid to “tear up the ballots” of all who voted for him.

“Today, there is not a police station in the State of Israel whose commander the minister [Ben Gvir] didn’t appoint,” says David Peter, Ben Gvir’s attorney. “There are people who just can’t swallow this, they can’t swallow the democratic outcome.”

Petitioners accuse the minister of interfering unlawfully in police decision making, subjecting law enforcement to political pressures that risk undermining its independence.

Among the many instances of the alleged interference cited in the petitions were his attempts to block the promotions of two police investigators, Rinat Saban and Ruti Hauslich. In Saban’s case, a judge said the minister was motivated by “external considerations” and ordered that she be promoted without his signature.

But Peter accuses petitioners of taking issue with Ben Gvir’s influence over police in general.

“The story isn’t Ruti Hauslich, it’s not Rinat Saban… This is about the one thousand police appointments that have occurred [during his term]. That’s the story, that’s what’s so hard to swallow,” he says, purporting that critics are frustrated that Ben Gvir is “succeeding in working within the framework of the law.”