Netanyahu allies look to marshal support for ousting AG and reviving judicial overhaul
Coalition largely backs controversial agenda, but postpones final decisions due to ultra-Orthodox parties’ demand to first push forward bill exempting Haredim from IDF enlistment
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior coalition allies gathered Sunday to discuss advancing a controversial push to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a move that would shear off one of the most potent guardrails on the government’s power.
The meeting also dealt with the possible return of the government’s controversial judicial overhaul agenda, which was frozen in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack last year.
According to Hebrew press reports, despite significant support among coalition leaders, final decisions on the issues were postponed due to the ultra-Orthodox parties’ demand that the coalition first pass legislation aimed at enshrining in law their constituents’ exemption from military service.
A bill seeking to regulate ultra-Orthodox enlistment is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said it will only pass if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.
A follow-up meeting is to be held later this week — as soon as Monday, according to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — and a draft of a new enlistment bill is set to be presented to the coalition heads.
The coalition leaders’ meeting on Sunday appeared to mark the most serious step yet by the government to pursue canning Baharav-Miara, an unprecedented move that some analysts believe could spark a serious crisis of confidence in Israel’s democratic system.
It came hot on the heels of comments made by Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Saturday evening, which seemed to bring the government’s shelved plan to overhaul the judiciary back to the fore.
While there was no official announcement ahead of Sunday’s meeting, Ben Gvir confirmed Saturday night that coalition leaders were slated to hold an “important discussion.”
“This is the time to send the attorney general home. We have a rare opportunity now and I hope everyone will be on board,” stated the far-right firebrand, who has sparred repeatedly with Baharav-Miara and has long called for her ouster due to her lack of support for far-reaching government moves she has deemed unconstitutional or illegal.
Following Sunday’s meeting, Ben Gvir thanked his coalition colleagues for what he described as their “broad agreement on my demand to dismiss the attorney general.”
“In the follow-up meeting tomorrow, I will ensure that the decision to begin the process will be brought to the government meeting this coming Sunday,” he said.
Several other lawmakers have also pushed for Baharav-Miara’s dismissal, and last month Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced that 13 cabinet ministers had signed a letter supporting her ouster.
Netanyahu was reported to have sat out parts of Sunday’s discussion dealing with the attorney general due to a conflict of interest arrangement put in place to keep him from being able to use government powers to influence his ongoing criminal trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
“This is a period of opportunities and challenges,” he was quoted as saying. “We must maintain the coalition, convey stability. Pass the budget even if there are disagreements, and get to the votes.”
According to Hebrew media reports, during Sunday’s discussion, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich questioned the wisdom of reviving the overhaul, notably including a far-reaching bill to change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, because they believe it would ultimately be overturned by the High Court.
Smotrich reportedly called for the creation of a new strategy to ensure the overhaul’s success, while Levin and Ben Gvir were said to have demanded the coalition move ahead with such legislation even if their efforts are ultimately overturned by the court.
According to leaks from the meeting, Smotrich said, “It’s not worth banging our heads against the wall. Let’s build a strategy so that [the legislation] is not struck down [by the Supreme Court]. We need to prepare this move so that it succeeds.”
To which Levin reportedly responded, “We need to do this now.”
Levin was the key driving force last year behind the government’s judicial overhaul initiative, which sought to advance legislation aimed at radically watering down the authority of judges or judicial officials to act as a check on the cabinet or Knesset. The hugely divisive program sparked unprecedented nationwide demonstrations and made little headway before being put on the backburner following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and ensuing war in Gaza.
Recent weeks have seen Levin and the judiciary cross swords anew over the minister’s refusal to convene the Judicial Selection Committee and have it confirm Justice Isaac Amit as Supreme Court president. Levin, who views Amit as too liberal, has attempted to hold off on the appointment for a year in hopes of installing committee members more in line with the government’s agenda.
Responding to a court order that a vote be held by January 16, Levin on Saturday night posted a lengthy diatribe against the High Court of Justice, in which he accused it of usurping the Knesset’s legislative role and the government’s executive powers.
Under such circumstances, the minister said, the government has “no choice at this time but to act in order to restore its powers.”
“They left us no choice. It cannot continue like this. We too have rights,” he declared.
While Levin didn’t explicitly say what course of action would follow his Saturday statement, multiple Hebrew media outlets understood his threat as pertaining to the coalition’s bill to change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, a bill that passed its first Knesset plenum reading in February 2023 and thus is potentially ready to quickly be passed into law via its second and third readings.
Speaking with the Haaretz daily, unnamed senior coalition officials stated that Levin’s threat to revive the bill is meant to push the court to postpone its ruling, giving him more time to reach an agreement on the next court president.
In a statement following Sunday’s meeting, Sa’ar, an outspoken opponent of Levin’s overhaul, said that while he supports the advancement of “well-considered reforms to the judicial system,” he “opposes a return to the legislation proposed in 2023 regarding the Judicial Selection Committee.”
Sa’ar, a former justice minister, also said that he supports splitting the role of the attorney general into two positions: a chief government legal adviser and a chief prosecutor, but cautioned that “at this time, great responsibility is required to avoid exacerbating tensions in Israeli society, and every move must be considered and take into account the enormous security and political challenges that Israel is facing and will face in the near future.”
Responding to the coalition’s efforts, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Levin of “endangering the State of Israel” with “Netanyahu’s full backing.”
“Those responsible for the October 7 failure… are trying again to crush the court, the Knesset and our democracy,” Lapid said. “We will not allow the government of destruction to dismantle Israel and turn us into an undemocratic state. We will struggle in the streets, we will struggle in the Knesset, we will struggle in the legal arena. We will not allow them to bring another disaster upon us.”
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz likewise slammed Levin, saying that “instead of resigning and apologizing to Israeli society for his enormous part in the disaster we went through, instead of taking responsibility for the crisis we reached – he is trying to drag us back to October 6,” when the country was riven over the judicial overhaul plan.
