Netanyahu has right to fire Gallant, attorney general tells High Court
AG says prime minister can dismiss cabinet members if he deems it necessary to keep government functioning, asks that petitions against move be dismissed
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the High Court of Justice on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is legal and therefore the court should not intervene in the matter.
Baharav-Miara was responding to a number of petitions against the bombshell political development, which came with Israel in the midst of a multifront war against regional terror groups.
It was a rare incident of harmony between Baharav-Miara and Netanyahu, who have otherwise had tense relationship.
The attorney general wrote that Netanyahu has the authority to fire ministers, including for political considerations, if the prime minister believes that his policies cannot be advanced by those he appointed and that the move would ensure the proper functioning of the government.
She asked that all the petitions against the move be rejected as they had not provided any evidence of illegality and because their chances of succeeding if the matter went to trial were low.
The court on Wednesday gave Netanyahu 24 hours to respond to a pair of petitions filed by civic groups.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close Netanyahu ally, had panned High Court Justice Yael Wilner for her decision to hear a petition on the matter.
Wilner, he said, was putting herself “in the prime minister’s shoes” and deliberating “on the firing and hiring of ministers, instead of rejecting the petition outright.”
One of the petitions was from the Movement for Quality Government, which asked the court to intervene in the dismissal which comes into effect on Thursday evening.
In a statement, the watchdog argued that Gallant’s termination was “a narrow political move that places personal and political interests above the good of the state and the security of its citizens,” linking the premier’s decision to the contentious Haredi draft legislation.
On Wednesday, five family members of hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip filed their own petition against Gallant’s dismissal.
Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he had fired Gallant, a lawmaker from his own Likud party with whom he has frequently clashed since the government’s accession at the end of 2022, and whom he fired in March 2023 only to reverse the move amid intense public objection.
The premier announced that Foreign Minister Israel Katz would replace Gallant as defense minister, with Gideon Sa’ar becoming foreign minister.
Opposition politicians accused the premier of playing politics at the expense of Israel’s security. The move was largely seen by critics as motivated by political considerations, including efforts to pass legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service, which Gallant had opposed.
Wednesday night saw the second day in a row of protests in Jerusalem and other locations around the country against Gallant’s dismissal.
Israel is in the midst of a war that began on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack on the south of the country that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted as hostages to Gaza. The fighting has spread as Iran’s proxy terror groups joined in support of Gaza, including Hezbollah in Lebanon where Israel has launched an air and ground operation to end rocket fire that has displaced tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel.
Earlier this week Netanyahu reportedly ordered that a “solution” be found for Baharav-Miara’s “adversarial” relationship with his government, as ministers railed against her office and called for her ouster.
Baharav-Miara has clashed with the government several times over laws and decisions she has deemed to be illegal, while ministers have repeatedly called for her ouster. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has charged that efforts to fire her would constitute a return to the government’s 2023 massively controversial efforts to hobble the judiciary.
