Why did Amir Ohana just fire the Justice Ministry’s top official?

Two theories are being advanced for Justice Minister Amir Ohana’s sudden firing of his ministry’s longtime and highly respected director general, Emi Palmor.

The first: the Netanyahu family, specifically the prime minister’s son Yair, considers Emi Palmor a “leftist.”

On Sunday, Yair Netanyahu shared a Facebook post written by one Atta Farhat that slammed former justice minister Ayelet Shaked for purportedly appointing “leftist” Palmor — as part of a call for voters not to vote for Shaked, but to stick to Likud instead.

The post read: “Did you know Ayelet Shaked appointed a leftist as director general of the Justice Ministry, a former aide to [former Meretz leader] Zehava Galon, Emi Palmor. Share because this time we can’t lose right-wing votes.”

The facts in the Farhat-Netanyahu post are wrong — Shaked did not appoint Palmor, who was already in the post for more than a year when Shaked became justice minister — but the message is clear.

A second theory says that removing Palmor allows Ohana to appoint the next director general, and thus a future member of the committee that will appoint the next state attorney, Israel’s top public prosecutor.

State Attorney Shai Nitzan finishes his five-year term in the next few months, and has pushed for the appointment of a prosecutor in the Tel Aviv district, Liat Ben-Ari, to replace him.

Ben-Ari happens to be the lead prosecutor in the three criminal corruption cases surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Nitzan has been a key figure urging Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to pursue those investigations.

Keeping Ben-Ari away from the top prosecution post is likely a priority for the prime minister, and Ohana probably just took a significant step toward making that happen.

Of course, both theories could be correct. Or neither. Ohana himself has not explained the move.