‘Quit dividing the nation’: Opposition pans move toward firing AG, as coalition hails it

Members of the coalition and its allies welcomed Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s move on Wednesday to initiate proceedings to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, while members of the opposition denounced the decision as an attack on the rule of law.

Levin, who has long threatened to take action against Baharav-Miara, sent letters to the Knesset speaker and the cabinet secretary, instructing them to fill the empty positions on the statutory committee for appointing, and dismissing, the attorney general, and asked that the attorney general’s firing be placed on the government’s agenda.

Baharav-Miara has repeatedly opposed the government on its proposed legislation, appointments and actions, arguing on numerous occasions that the measures taken by the government — including its divisive judicial overhaul agenda — contravened the law and undermined the rule of law in different ways.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, writing on X, said: “Yariv Levin decided to divide Israeli society at a time of war. Levin, one of those chiefly responsible for the October 7 disaster, hasn’t learned a thing. He is harming the state, harming the rule of law, and harming the war effort.

“The step to dismiss the attorney general is criminal, violent and unconstitutional, and we will do everything necessary to thwart it,” added the Yesh Atid party chair.

National Unity party leader Benny Gantz posted: “In a functional country, a justice minister who destroys democracy, harms the unity of Israel and is among those responsible for the greatest disaster in the history of the State of Israel — would be fired. In the October 7 government — he asks to fire the attorney general.”

“Netanyahu, I warned you in the past and I am warning you now, when we face enormous security challenges — quit dividing the nation. Don’t give our enemies gifts. We will fight the process [of firing the AG] with all legal means and with all our power,” vowed the centrist party chief.

The Democrats chair Yair Golan wrote: “Yariv Levin launched a targeted assassination attempt today — not against the attorney general, but rather against the entire rule of law. The attack on the AG is a direct attack on democracy, on the rule of law, on us.

“But Levin and Netanyahu will discover that the nation is strong, stronger than they are. Strong and determined to fight,” continued the left-wing party’s chair.

“Now is the time to rise. To stand up, and defend the attorney general, defend democracy. We will not let them trample over us,” Golan said.

The activist group Hofshi b’Artzeinu, which has opposed the government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary, said: “The nation stopped the coup one time, and it will do so again.”

The judicial overhaul effort, of which Levin is an architect, divided the country and sparked mass protests in 2023. It was largely shelved upon the outbreak of war with the Hamas terror group, but parts of it have been revived in recent months, drawing vocal opposition from the attorney general.

Ministers, and Ben Gvir, welcome move

Meanwhile, members of the coalition and its allies embraced the move.

Former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit the government in January in opposition to the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas and has repeatedly urged Baharav-Miara’s dismissal over the past two years, posted on X: “Better late than never. The time has come!”

Ben Gvir, who chairs the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, frequently clashed with the attorney general during his time as national security minister, in particular over his management of the Israel Police, in whose internal affairs Baharav-Miara accused Ben Gvir of unlawfully meddling.

In November, the attorney general wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to weigh firing Ben Gvir, saying the latter’s actions in office reflected a pattern of behavior of “contempt for the law, violation of the law and harm to the foundational principles of governance, and by the politicization of police work.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who chairs the far-right Religious Zionism party and is currently in the US, said in a statement: “I just got out of a meeting in the White House and received the good news that my dear friend the justice minister has made the decision to initiate the process of replacing the attorney general.

“Such a correct step, so important, so much demanded. Maybe you need to be here in Washington to learn from [US] President [Donald] Trump how a real democracy works,” he said, in which public officials execute “the policy of those elected by the public, and don’t torpedo it time after time after time.”

Culture Minister Miki Zohar also lauded the move, writing: “The justice minister did a good thing, beginning the process of replacing the AG, and the AG would do a good thing by quitting her position in light of the deep breach of trust between her and the elected government.”

Education Minister Yoav Kisch accused Baharav-Miara of opposing the government’s actions “from the first moment, in a manner that was not related to substance and was totally political.”

Sa’ar, who appointed Baharav-Miara, says she gave Levin no choice

In a lengthy statement, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar — who appointed Baharav-Miara while serving as justice minister in the previous government — said that while removing her was “an unusual step,” the attorney general’s conduct has been “extremely unusual,” and thus the move was justified.

Baharav-Miara “has become a full-fledged political actor, working systematically against the government, with the clear aim of toppling it,” Sa’ar said.

“Anyone who wants to topple the government supports her, and vice versa,” he added, saying this is not an appropriate role for an attorney general to play.

Sa’ar — who in 2023 denounced Levin’s apparent efforts to oust Baharav-Miara, calling them an extremist threat to the state — described the office of attorney general as “dear to my heart.”

He said he was right to support Baharav-Miara’s original appointment, based on the non-activist legal philosophy he said she advocated at the time. But Baharav-Miara has “changed her approach 180 degrees,” he charged, citing her position on two recent legal controversies as evidence.

In the process, the office of the attorney general has “turned into a political institution, which only enjoys the trust of half the nation, in accordance with political affiliation,” he charged.

“Baharav-Miara left the justice minister no choice,” he declared.

Sa’ar added that in addition to ousting the attorney general, the government should promote reforming the role of the attorney general itself splitting it into two — one as attorney general and the other as legal adviser to the government — which he and others have long contended create an inherent conflict of interest when deciding whether to indict a member of the government.

Poll: Plurality of Israelis support firing AG

On Wednesday evening, Channel 12 news aired a poll that it had conducted prior to the announcement of Levin’s steps to fire Baharav-Miara, asking Israelis whether they would support ousting her.

The poll showed 42 percent of Israelis backing the move, compared to 41% who oppose it and 17% who are unsure.

Among coalition voters, support for her ouster stands at 75%, compared to 12% among opposition voters, reflecting her highly controversial status.

The survey, conducted on Wednesday by the Midgam institute among a representative sample of Israeli adults, had 500 respondents and a margin of error of 4.4%.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.