Justice minister vows not to obey High Court if it rules ‘my friend’ Ben Gvir must be fired

Justice Minister Yariv Levin vows that if the High Court of Justice rules that ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir must be removed from office, the government will not respect the decision, referring to the far-right lawmaker as “my friend.”

“The hearing taking place this morning to oust Minister Ben Gvir is unlawful, and the decision of the judges will regardless have zero validity,” Levin declares.

“The authority to appoint or fire a minister is given in law to the prime minister and not the court,” continues the Likud minister and key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“My friend, Minister Ben Gvir, will continue to serve in his position by virtue of the decision of the people and the trust of the Knesset,” Levin says of the far-right leader.

His comments come ahead of a key hearing today in which petitioners are asking the High Court to order the prime minister to fire Ben Gvir due to what they allege is his repeated and unlawful interference in operational police matters, his politicization of police appointments, and his overt interference on police investigations.

The petitions will be heard by a nine-judge panel instead of the usual three-member panel, including Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, indicating the potentially huge consequences and implications of the case.

In January 2023, the High Court of Justice ruled 10-1 that the appointment of Shas leader Aryeh Deri as a cabinet minister was “unreasonable in the extreme” due to a recent criminal conviction and the plea bargain he secured by promising to quit politics, which he subsequently reneged on. Deri therefore lost his positions as minister of the interior and health.