From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 5, 2024
‘Legal seamstress to the government’: Otzma Yehudit attacks AG with new Tel Aviv billboard
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party puts up a billboard attacking Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in Tel Aviv.
Calling Baharav-Miara the “legal seamstress to the government,” the billboard carries an image of the attorney general using a sewing machine to assemble bags featuring the faces of Ben Gvir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a Hebrew pun implying that she is stitching together tailor-made cases to oust the two senior politicians.
Baharav-Miara recently told Netanyahu that he must reevaluate Ben Gvir’s continued tenure in light of the latter’s repeated and ongoing intervention into operational police matters and his politicization of police promotions.
In response, Ben Gvir has accused her of engaging in a “fishing expedition,” claiming that the attorney general had undertaken a search for a legal pretext to take action against him.
Ben Gvir is one of a number of cabinet ministers pushing for Baharav-Miara’s ouster.
