Citing procedural issues over Bar firing, justices appear to put government on defensive

The judges on the High Court of Justice panel hearing petitions on the government’s dismissal of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar appear skeptical of the government’s position that its authority under the law allows it to fire the security chief regardless of circumstance, pointing to several procedural flaws in the manner in which the decision was made, as the court reconvenes after a short recess for lunch.

Attorney Zion Amir, representing the prime minister and the government, argues that the government has “total authority” under the law to hire and fire the head of the Shin Bet, but both conservative judge Noam Sohlberg and liberal judge Daphne Barak Erez point out that the obligations and principles of administrative law still apply.

“This court has held since the 1960s that no [government] body has total discretion,” Barak Erez tells Amir.

Sohlberg and Barak Erez point out that Bar was not given sufficient time to prepare for a disciplinary hearing in front of the government, nor was he presented with a concrete list of the complaints against him.

And Supreme Court President Isaac Amit points out that a senior public office holder at the level of the Shin Bet chief has never before been fired by the government.

Amir counters that the security situation in Israel following October 7 is also unprecedented.

Amit also opines that he believes the attorney general’s opinion that the decision to fire Bar needed to be brought to the advisory committee for senior appointment was “correct,” essentially piling on further procedural questions over Bar’s firing.

Sohlberg says during the hearing that he would have wanted to hear from Bar himself to clarify aspects of the case, since “none of the eight petitioners have provided a factual infrastructure which I, as a judge, can rely on.”

Attorney Aner Helman, representing the attorney general, tells the court that Bar can come to the court within 30 minutes to address the judges in a closed-door session if the judges so wish.