Ministers pile on deputy AG over demand for panel to tap civil service chief
Amsalem reportedly calls Gil Limon the ‘most dangerous man in the country,’ after AG tells government to follow 2018 decision and form committee to fill key role
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
Cabinet ministers on Sunday assailed a deputy attorney general for confirming that, in keeping with current practice, the next civil service commissioner must be appointed through a committee, and rejecting the government’s request that the prime minister appoint the commissioner directly.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month that the role, which involves supervising civil servants, must be approved by a search committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice, citing a 2018 government decision that was made to ensure the position’s independence. However, the process is not entrenched in legislation.
Current commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz is set to complete his term in October. His appointment was approved by the government in 2018 after a committee, headed by retired judge Hanan Efrati, at the time rejected Netanyahu’s first choice for the job.
Baharav-Miara proposed to the cabinet that the committee also include a representative of her office, an academic chosen by the heads of law schools, a former commissioner or former director general of a ministry, and a representative of the public picked by the prime minister and approved by the attorney general, Hebrew media outlets reported.
The cabinet did not accept Baharav-Miara’s opinion on the matter at the end of the discussion, the reports said.
According to leaked quotes from the meeting, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon said it was possible to “improve” the makeup of the committee, but urged the cabinet to accept the opinion of Baharav-Miara and form a panel to search for the next commissioner.
Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel reportedly charged that the attorney general’s office had “gone too far.”
Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem asserted that the appointment of a commissioner belonged to the government alone and questioned the relevance of such a committee.
“Next you’ll ask that ministers be appointed through a search committee. You and your boss are ruining things for me, everything here is turned upside down. I was chosen by more than a million people. You are starting from a premise that everyone here is a criminal,” he reportedly said.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also weighed in, calling the move a “conflict of interest,” comparing it to a situation in which “you go to a business consultant and he tells you ‘put your money in my account,'” and accused the attorney general of trying to turn herself into the government that she works for.
“I see here an attempt to forcefully take over the stronghold that is the Civil Service Commission. It is inconceivable that the government’s powers are disintegrated. The attorney general’s proposal should be rejected,” he said, according to reports.
Netanyahu reportedly argued that the debate related to Israel’s democratic character, and whether the country would resemble a representative democracy or a system based on the rule of the attorney general.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was said to claim Limon’s arguments were “incoherent” and would not be satisfactory for a university law student, “not even for a 12-year-old or a waiter.”
Netanyahu reprimanded Smotrich for the remark, asking him to speak respectfully.
“You are the most dangerous man in the country. We should fire you and the attorney general,” Amsalem was quoted as telling Limon, while Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli accused the deputy attorney general of backing “institutionalized political violence.”
Limon rejected the ministers’ accusations and asserted that his office was acting professionally. “We can discuss the composition of the committee to find the commissioner,” he added, according to the leaks.
“In a democracy, the gatekeepers are the public and the voters,” Netanyahu reportedly said.
“For decades, satisfactory commissioners were appointed and there was no problem with the system. So how did this problem come up?” Justice Minister Yariv Levin said.
Netanyahu’s government has frequently clashed with Baharav-Miara, particularly in recent weeks, when the attorney general has labeled Levin’s move to avoid convening a vote to choose a Supreme Court president as “extremely unreasonable,” and said the government is obligated to draft Haredi men to the military.
Current ministers and coalition lawmakers have repeatedly sought to appoint personal associates to senior government positions.
Last year, the government pursued now-shelved legislation to overhaul the judiciary. Some bills would have resulted in the transferring control over judicial appointments to politicians and would have allowed private legal advisers for ministries.
