Netanyahu cancels appointment of top civil service role after AG’s opposition

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has canceled the appointment of Eden Bar Tal as interim Civil Service commissioner, following the Attorney General Office’s opposition to the appointment and Bar Tal’s subsequent request that it be annulled.

Writing to Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs lambastes the Attorney General’s Office, accuses it of “conquering” the Civil Service Commission, and of serially thwarting the government’s efforts to fill the position of commissioner.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and the government have been engaged in legal battle over filling the position, empty since December last year, with Baharav-Miara opposing the government’s proposed method for appointing a permanent commissioner, which led to a recent High Court decision siding with the attorney general.

Before that decision, Baharav Miara also opposed the appointment of a previous interim commissioner, although the High Court allowed the appointment for a short duration of time. Last week, Limon told the prime minister that he had failed to consult with the Attorney General’s Office in appointing Bar Tal, the current Foreign Ministry director general, and was obliged to do so before the appointment could take effect.

Fuchs insists in his letter to Limon that there is no such obligation, and that the insistence that such consultation take place “in the absence of any anchor in law to that effect raises legal and public astonishment.”