Lawmakers angrily lay into attorney general at raucous Knesset meeting

Embattled Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is angrily assailed by coalition lawmakers at a tempestuous Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting, who berate her and accuse her of insolence.

During a ferocious interrogation, committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman blasts Baharav-Miara for what he alleges is her failure to provide the lawmakers with information they requested regarding the functioning of a working group tasked with tackling organized crime, and then accuses her of ignoring the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the group on a regular basis.

Baharav-Miara tells Rothman that he should not interfere in her working relationship with the prime minister, causing Rothman to explode with anger.

“This is an utter disgrace,” Rothman exclaims, and then shouts at her to “stop interrupting me,” as she seeks to explain.

“I never experienced a public servant who interrupted a committee chair so much. When the prime minister requests that the working group you head meet once a week, I am not interfering with your working relationship with the prime minister. Your job here is to answer,” he bellows.

Likud MK Moshe Saada joins in the flogging, blasting her for investigating allegations of abuse against the IDF Force 100 prison riot control unit, which was implicated in severe abuse of Palestinian detainees in the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility.

Calling the attorney general by her first name, Saada denounces Baharav-Miara for carrying out such investigations into IDF soldiers, as well as decrying other aspects of her conduct. The broadside sparks bedlam in the committee, with opposition and coalition MKs screaming at each other over Saada’s allegations.