From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
‘Democracy is fragile’: AG lambastes justice minister for ‘efforts to dismantle mechanisms of governance’
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara lambastes Justice Minister Yariv Levin for what she says is his attempts to weaken the judiciary and refusing to appoint a Supreme Court president, during the retirement ceremony for outgoing acting Supreme Court Justice Uzi Vogelman.
Without referencing Levin directly but standing right next to the justice minister as she addressed the court, she says that “democracy is fragile” and that “efforts to dismantle mechanisms of governance and proper procedure which protect human rights and the rule of law” are still being felt.
Levin sat motionless throughout Baharav-Miara’s speech.
Baharav-Miara’s critique referred to efforts by the government to circumvent her offices and assert its own legal interpretations of the law, as well Levin’s obstructionism over the appointment of a new president and refusal to fill empty seats on the Supreme Court bench, which she said were the continuation of Levin’s radical judicial overhaul program to restrain the judiciary which he advanced in the first half of 2023.
“The meaning of a weakened and exhausted Supreme Court by diluting [its bench] is government without oversight, harm to human rights perforce, and the strengthening of dangerous phenomena,” she continues, including the failure to draft ultra-Orthodox men into military service and corruption on her list of internal dangers currently facing the country.
The attorney general also points to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech in the UN General Assembly, where he highlighted Israel’s “independent courts” in rebuking the International Criminal Court prosecutor for seeking arrest warrants for him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Indeed, there is a lot to be proud of, and we must be careful not to destroy it,” snipes Baharav-Miara.
“Harming the judicial authority at this time is especially damaging. It is not responsible and runs contrary to the national interest.”
