Knesset to split up controversial attorney general bill, clause allowing government to ignore AG remains

The Knesset plenum will vote this evening on splitting its highly controversial legislation to gut the powers of the attorney general, seemingly because the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee no longer has time to prepare the original bill, due to its size and potential impact.

If the plenum approves, the legislation will no longer divide the role of attorney general position in two — an attorney general and a prosecutor general — as the government sought to do throughout the entire legislative process of the bill. Instead, it will keep all roles under the authority of the attorney general.

The bill nevertheless preserves the most controversial aspect of the draft law: that the attorney general’s legal position will no longer be binding for the government. Critics of this provision, including Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, say that allowing the government to decide for itself whether its actions are legal will severely violate the rule of law and remove a key check on government power.

Constitution committee legal adviser Gur Bligh stated specifically during today’s hearing that a key concern over the bill was the ability of the government to ignore the attorney general’s legal positions in “extreme” situations in which it tries to expand its authority beyond the boundaries of the law. Bligh said this was “especially dangerous” regarding criminal proceedings and election law for which the bill does not provide “adequate safeguards.”

The new version of the bill also removes the highly politicized method of hiring and firing the attorney general, which the previous version of the legislation stipulated, and which critics said would almost certainly undermine the independence of the attorney general. But the new text of the bill says that the government will decide how the attorney general will be appointed and dismissed within 30 days of the law coming into effect after the upcoming elections.

The original version of the legislation passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum in June, but the plenum must approve the committee’s decision to split the bill.

Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman intends to begin the process of approving the bill for its final readings in Knesset tomorrow night, meaning that votes in the plenum for the final passage of the legislation will likely be scheduled for next week.