Sa’ar blasts attorney general’s ‘political document’ against his judicial proposal

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar assails Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over her warnings against his and Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s proposal to overhaul the judicial appointments process.

“This is a political document, not a legal one,” he says of her legal position paper. “To be honest, it is difficult to find, in the history of the state and the Knesset, a proposal that was formulated after such extensive public and political discourse.”

He accuses her of “an attempt to stall” legislation by suggesting “a ‘public committee’ or a ‘government bill process’ — all just to buy time and try to prevent legislation that enjoys a sweeping majority in the Knesset.”

Sa’ar, who under the Bennett-Lapid government recommended Baharav-Miara for the post, adds: “I will not even address the attorney general’s many fundamental errors, such as the assumption that the principle of separation of powers necessarily requires judges to have influence over the selection of judges. The attorney general writes that the proposal harms and contradicts democratic principles. The truth is that the one undermining democratic principles is the attorney general herself, who is trying to replace both the government and the Knesset.”