Yesh Atid to petition High Court if government fires attorney general ‘illegally’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party says it will petition the High Court of Justice should the government dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara “illegally.”

The government is expected to vote today on her dismissal, following a hearing in which she will be given the opportunity to defend her conduct in office, but which she has said she will not attend.

“Assuming that the Government of Israel dismisses the attorney general in an illegal, fundamentally flawed process marked by a political conflict of interest, the Yesh Atid party will petition the High Court of Justice to stop a blatant attack on the rule of law,” Yesh Atid says in a statement.

“The government is trampling on every guardian of democracy who prevents it from dismantling the state, and is dismissing anyone who confronts it with the legal truth,” says Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, the opposition’s representative on the judicial selection committee.

“This is not the dismissal of an attorney general; this is the elimination of the institution. Legal advice that does not stand firm on the principles of the rule of law, but aligns itself with politicians, is not a guardian of democracy, but a mouthpiece, and this must not happen.”

Last month, a newly established ministerial committee recommended to the government that it fire the attorney general due to “substantive and ongoing differences of opinion between the government and the attorney general, preventing effective cooperation.”

The new committee was created by the government after it was unable to fire her using the established method for sacking an attorney general.

The High Court of Justice has ruled that any decision by the cabinet to fire Baharav-Miara will not take immediate effect, in order to allow the court to rule on petitions against the dismissal process, which several government watchdog groups argue was implemented unlawfully.