Firing of Attorney General on Monday’s cabinet agenda

The agenda for the upcoming cabinet meeting on Monday published today, includes an item for firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The government has been advancing a new process for firing the attorney general since June this year, and a ministerial committee set up as part of that process recommended last week that the government indeed dismiss her from office.

The government argues that Baharav-Miara has repeatedly blocked government policies, appointments, and legislation on political grounds, and that it can no longer work with her due to “substantive and ongoing differences of opinion” between the two sides.

Baharav-Miara has argued, however, that she has simply restrained the government from acting unlawfully and from advancing unconstitutional legislation, and that in the overwhelming majority of cases in which she and the government have clashed and which have come before the High Court of Justice, the court has ruled in her favor.

Critics of the government have argued that the government is undermining the rule of law by seeking to fire an attorney general who has acted lawfully, pointing to her victories in the High Court as proof that the government’s grounds for firing her are not legitimate.

The High Court has ruled that any decision to fire Baharav-Miara will not come into effect immediately, and that the decision will be frozen until the court issues a final ruling on petitions against the new dismissal process.

The government is, however, gearing up to boycott Baharav-Miara by not inviting her to cabinet meetings, security cabinet meetings, and other key government forums as soon as she is fired.