Gallant firing set to become official as court strikes down attempt to block ouster

The High Court of Justice unanimously rules against several petitions asking it to overturn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying there was no justification for court intervention.

With the court’s okay, Gallant’s firing is set to go into effect in the next hour. The Knesset is also set to begin voting on replacing Gallant with Foreign Minister Israel Katz at 8 p.m.

The petitions, filed by several government watchdog groups, had argued that the decision to fire Gallant amid a severe and ongoing war was made using non-pertinent and political considerations, and was unreasonable in the extreme.

Justice Yael Wilner writes in the court’s ruling that the discretion of the prime minister in hiring and firing ministers is “very broad” and can include a variety of considerations.

She added that Netanyahu’s stated reason for firing Gallant, a breakdown of trust between him and the defense minister, and the significant difference of agreement the two had over key security and policy issues, meant there were no grounds for judicial intervention.

Wilner does write however that the decision to fire Gallant “does raise unique questions regarding the timing of the decision to remove the minister from his position in the middle of an ongoing war.”

She concludes however that the petitioners did not demonstrate that the decision to fire Gallant rose to the level of being unreasonable in the extreme, and so dismisses the petition.

Justices Yosef Elron and Ruth Ronen concur with Wilner’s ruling.