High Court rejects another government proposal to stray from process in firing AG

The High Court of Justice unanimously rejects the government’s proposal for it to consult the advisory committee for hiring and firing the attorney general in order to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, if the court allows it to convene without a key member.

The court issued a unanimous decision on September 1 recommending that the government cancel its decision to fire Baharav-Miara, which it made on the basis of a recommendation by a politicized advisory committee that it established specifically to fire the serving attorney general.

The court recommended that the government should instead revert to the public, professional advisory committee established in the year 2000, which Justice Minister Yariv Levin said could not be convened since all former justice ministers or attorneys general had either refused to join the committee or, according to Levin, were opposed to the government.

Levin told the court on September 15 that it would agree to revert to the original committee if the court allowed it to convene without a former justice minister or attorney general, if the government once again failed to find such a person to serve on the panel.

But in its decision today, the High Court says its original recommendation “speaks for itself” and that it is not the practice of the court to agree to demands of litigants “about future actions and hypothetical scenarios.”

The decision by the court once again puts the judiciary and the government on the road to a direct clash over the legality of the latter’s efforts to remove Baharav-Miara from office.