PM says AG ‘abusing her authority’ by opposing Shin Bet chief’s firing, claims her Qatar probe is politically motivated

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of abusing her authority, after she tells him that he cannot proceed with his dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar unless a “factual and legal basis” for doing so could be established.

He also claims that her decision to open a probe last month into alleged illicit ties between his aides and Qatar was politically motivated.

In a letter published this evening, Netanyahu reiterates that decisions relating to the firing of a Shin Bet chief are under his “exclusive authority,” and says that by suggesting otherwise, Baharav-Miara is engaging in “dangerous heresy.”

He says that Baharav-Miara’s warning about the process of firing Bar potentially being “tainted by illegality and conflict of interest” is “a complete inversion of justice.”

“Your instructions to open a series of investigations against the prime minister’s staff… are an abuse of your authority and an improper practice that has already become a method, the whole purpose of which is to deny authority to the political echelon,” Netanyahu charges.

He claims that “even the Israel Police don’t understand” why senior members of his office are being investigated for, among other things, alleged ties to Qatar.

“The decision to end the Shin Bet chief’s term was not made against the backdrop of the investigation,” Netanyahu alleges. “On the contrary, the ‘investigation’ was born after the possibility of dismissing him arose and was leaked to the media.”

He says that the attorney general is welcome to sit in on the cabinet meeting tomorrow in which the government will vote on dismissing Bar, telling her that she will “be able to hear in detail the reason for the proposed decision and voice your legal position before the government’s decision is made.”