Heads of 10 Israeli colleges: Attempt to fire AG is ‘a call to dismantle the rule of law’

Ten heads of Israeli colleges have followed university presidents in declaring that they will launch major protest actions if the government should dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

Their letter comes after presidents of Israel’s eight research universities warned Sunday that their institutions will go on strike if the government fires Baharav-Miara. Justice Minister Yariv Levin began the lengthy process of removing the attorney general from her post last week, accusing her of having politicized her office and repeatedly thwarting the will of the government.

The college presidents say Levin’s plan represented “a significant and fundamental threat to the rule of law in Israel and to Israel’s status as a liberal democracy.”

“A government that seeks to dismiss the person prosecuting its leader is taking action intended to intimidate all watchdogs. The call by ministers and members of the Knesset to dismiss the attorney general under the current circumstances is, in practice, a call to dismantle the rule of law,” they say.