Smotrich slams AG’s procedural criticism of decision to place bomb shelters in illegal settlements

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slams Attorney General Gali Baharv-Miara for criticizing a cabinet decision regarding the placement of mobile bomb shelters in illegal West Bank outposts, which she said was the result of an improper decision-making process.

“We will continue to fix, regulate, and create de facto sovereignty, and the attorney general will continue to interfere,” Smotrich tweets, saying that West Bank settlers also have “the right to life.”

Thanking “the cabinet ministers for voting unanimously in favor of the decision,” Smotrich says that “we are continuing together and with all our strength for the sake of settlement and security.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the attorney general said that the resolution was not put on the cabinet’s agenda, did not receive professional scrutiny from the security services, and had not been presented to the cabinet ministers with the budget impact assessment and legal position paper necessary for such decisions.

She insisted that such decisions are in the purview of professional officials in the IDF, “as determined by a broad view of the array of risks in relation to all the country’s citizens, and the extent [of those risks],” and asserted that only the defense minister is responsible for such decisions.

In response, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) accused Baharav-Miara of making a “series of claims disconnected from reality,” and insisted that the decision-making process was lawful, saying that the proposal was debated in the cabinet back on October 1.