From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 11, 2024
Netanyahu warns efforts by AG to fire Ben Gvir will lead to ‘a constitutional crisis’
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"
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s support for the removal of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is “the fastest way to a constitutional crisis,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told ministers during a cabinet meeting on Sunday evening.
According to Hebrew press accounts of the meeting, Ben Gvir complained that Baharav-Miara “wants to bring down the government.”
“There is only one answer: fire her,” Amsalem Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem interjected, reiterating his recent call to dismiss the attorney general.
“You can’t just talk all the time. It’s time for action,” Ben Gvir shot back, warning that “today it’s me, tomorrow it’s you – they want to take over the government.”
In response, Netanyahu pledged not to fire the far-right minister, adding that he didn’t know “a faster way to bring about a constitutional crisis than trying to fire a minister without an indictment.”
Baharav-Miara is set to tell Netanyahu that he must fire Ben Gvir for repeatedly violating the law while in office unless he changes his mode of conduct, Channel 13 reported on Sunday evening.
Baharav-Miara is formulating the state’s response to a petition filed in September to the High Court of Justice demanding that Ben Gvir be removed from office for repeatedly intervening in the functioning of the police in a manner the court has prohibited.
Ben Gvir called for Baharav-Miara’s firing in reaction to the Channel 13 news report, which came amid revelations by several outlets regarding the minister’s political consultations with his advisers and politically driven moves that were ostensibly purely professional.
