Attorney general to Netanyahu and Gantz: Stop holding up public appointments

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz to request that they remove any opposition to the appointment of several key public positions currently without permanent office holders.

“I ask you to act without delay in accordance with your powers under the law to promote permanent appointments to senior positions in the civil service,” Mandelblit wrote to the premier and defense minister.

“In the six months that have passed since the government formed, many positions have been staffed by way of temporary appointment,” Mandelblit chided.

In the government coalition agreement, the Likud and Blue and White parties agreed to put off any senior nominations that they were likely to clash over. However, at the start of October, Blue and White chair Gantz said it was time to end the “chaos” in the government and fill senior law enforcement posts that have long been manned by temporary appointments.

Israel has been without a permanent state attorney since December 2019, with the end of Shai Nitzan’s term. Mandelblit has been serving as acting state attorney in recent months.

Similarly, the Israel Police has also been without a commissioner since December 2018 with the end of Roni Alsheich’s term. Alsheich was a key figure in the Netanyahu probes and thus reviled by the prime minister and Likud as one of the figures the premier claims was involved in an attempted coup against him. Motti Cohen has been acting police chief since Alsheich’s departure and has had his tenure extended several times.

Mandelblit said that appointing permanent replacements, as opposed to temporary postings, “prevents the office holder from being dependent on the appointing agent and ensures independence at his discretion.”

And with a number of pending High Court petitions against the delays in key appointments, Mandelblit added, “As long as there is no change in the situation described, it will be very difficult to defend the government’s conduct in the said legal proceedings.”

Responding to the letter, Blue and White said that Gantz had instructed Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn “to speed up the process of appointing a state attorney and bring it to the government for approval as soon as possible.”

Gantz also called on Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, of Likud, to appoint a police commissioner immediately.

“The country now needs stability and full functioning. Appointments must not be delayed in a way that harms the citizens of Israel,” Gantz said.

Last month, reversing a previous decision that no committee can currently be formed to name a state attorney due to bureaucratic difficulties, Civil Service Commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz said that due to its importance, the process of finding someone to fill the key post would begin immediately.

Mandelblit’s letter came a day after the attorney general published a legal opinion stating that the prime minister cannot be involved in the appointment of law enforcement and legal officials, such as the police commissioner and state prosecutor, due to a conflict of interests.

Netanyahu had been battling with the attorney general for months, demanding the right to be involved in the appointment of the attorney general’s successor and others. In August, the premier rejected an earlier draft of the conflict of interest arrangement proposed by Mandelblit, claiming that the attorney general himself was in a conflict of interest, since he had made the decision late last year to indict the prime minister in three corruption cases.

Under the new arrangement published by Mandelblit on Monday, Netanyahu cannot intervene in matters related to the status of several top police and prosecution officials, in several fields under the responsibility of the Communications Ministry, or in the Judicial Appointments Committee, which appoints judges to the Jerusalem District Court — where his trial is being conducted — and the Supreme Court, which would hear any appeals in the case.

“The situation in which a prime minister is serving at the same time as a criminal proceeding against him is being conducted is a precedential and exceptional situation, which requires special consideration,” Mandelblit’s legal opinion read.

Netanyahu’s trial on charges of accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust opened in May in the Jerusalem District Court.

Netanyahu is accused of offering to advance legislation benefiting powerful Israeli media moguls in exchange for more positive coverage in their publications. He has also been charged with accepting some $200,000 in illicit gifts such as cigars and champagne from two billionaires. He denies any wrongdoing.