Ministers assail AG at cabinet meeting, demand protest crackdown, urge her removal
Ministers assail AG at cabinet meeting, demand protest crackdown, urge her removal
Gali Baharav-Miara castigated, and she hits back, in raucous hours-long discussion as ministers allege a too-soft approach by law enforcement to anti-overhaul demonstrations
A succession of ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government castigated Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during a raucous, hours-long cabinet meeting on Sunday, in which she was repeatedly attacked over authorities’ handling of lawbreaking during demonstrations against the government. Several calls were made for her dismissal.
Netanyahu started off what became an angry and tempestuous debate by telling Baharav-Miara that “selective enforcement is a fatal wound to democracy,” and his ministers soon piled on to denounce the attorney general over the issue.
Netanyahu started off what became an angry and tempestuous debate by telling Baharav-Miara that “selective enforcement is a fatal wound to democracy,” and his ministers soon piled on to denounce the attorney general over the issue.
Baharav-Miara and other senior officials in the Justice Ministry were summoned to Sunday’s cabinet meeting to discuss how law enforcement agencies have dealt with the massive wave of protests against the government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary, which have included blocking highways and other forms of civil disobedience.
Ministers have bristled at what they view as overly soft handling of demonstrators who harass and heckle them wherever they go, stage protests at their homes and block key roads for hours at a time.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev said Baharav-Miara should be fired in light of what the Likud minister said was the attorney general’s unwillingness to prevent disturbances of the peace; National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the failure to indict more protesters was “disgraceful”; Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan told her that “selective enforcement is evil”; and Justice Minister Yariv Levin suggested sarcastically that she should simply announce that blocking the Ayalon Highway is legal.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev said Baharav-Miara should be fired in light of what the Likud minister said was the attorney general’s unwillingness to prevent disturbances of the peace; National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the failure to indict more protesters was “disgraceful”; Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan told her that “selective enforcement is evil”; and Justice Minister Yariv Levin suggested sarcastically that she should simply announce that blocking the Ayalon Highway is legal.
Baharav-Miara responded by implicitly accusing the ministers of attempted political interference in the manner in which law enforcement agencies manage protests against the government, while opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced the cabinet’s attack on the attorney general as “a violent hazing” and an example of the government’s attempt to “forcibly take out our democracy.”
At the end of the meeting, Baharav-Miara was requested to submit a document to the cabinet within seven days detailing law enforcement policy toward road-blocking, protests at elected officials’ homes and calls for refusal to serve in the military and other forms of civil disobedience. She was also told to present a clear policy on enforcement at Ben Gurion Airport in two days’ time, when mass protests are once again planned at Israel’s main travel hub.
At the end of the meeting, Baharav-Miara was requested to submit a document to the cabinet within seven days detailing law enforcement policy toward road-blocking, protests at elected officials’ homes and calls for refusal to serve in the military and other forms of civil disobedience. She was also told to present a clear policy on enforcement at Ben Gurion Airport in two days’ time, when mass protests are once again planned at Israel’s main travel hub.
Baharav-Miara and other senior officials in the Justice Ministry were summoned to Sunday’s cabinet meeting to discuss how law enforcement agencies have dealt with the massive wave of protests against the government since it took office, which have included blocking highways and other forms of civil disobedience.
According to numbers presented during the meeting, police have arrested 572 protesters since the demonstrations began in January for disturbing the peace, not obeying police instructions or assaulting police officers. Of those cases, six indictments were filed, all for attacking police officers.
“If the attorney general supports and allows disturbances of public order, contrary to the opinion of the Supreme Court and previous attorneys general, then what is the job of elected officials?” demanded Regev. “If the attorney general… isn’t willing to help the government function, maybe she should be fired.”
She was joined in her call to dismiss Baharav-Miara by Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, who is also a second minister in the Justice Ministry. Amsalem said Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman should both be fired.
When, according to several Hebrew media outlets, Netanyahu reprimanded Amsalem for his comments, Amsalem reportedly retorted that the prime minister had “a conflict of interest” regarding the attorney general — an apparent jibe over Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial.
Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police as national security minister, demanded to know how many protesters had been indicted, and “how many were investigated on suspicion of criminal conspiracy for organizing riots?”
When he was told by a Justice Ministry official that the answers were six and zero respectively, Ben Gvir exploded, declaring, “It’s simply a disgrace. There is no enforcement.”
She was joined in her call to dismiss Baharav-Miara by Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, who is also a second minister in the Justice Ministry. Amsalem said Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman should both be fired.
When, according to several Hebrew media outlets, Netanyahu reprimanded Amsalem for his comments, Amsalem reportedly retorted that the prime minister had “a conflict of interest” regarding the attorney general — an apparent jibe over Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial.
Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police as national security minister, demanded to know how many protesters had been indicted, and “how many were investigated on suspicion of criminal conspiracy for organizing riots?”
When he was told by a Justice Ministry official that the answers were six and zero respectively, Ben Gvir exploded, declaring, “It’s simply a disgrace. There is no enforcement.”
Negev and the Galilee Development Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, a member of Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, threatened to take legal action against Baharav-Miara.
“All of Israel’s citizens see the selective enforcement, so I am raising a clear red flag here. It would not be pleasant if we had to petition the High Court of Justice against the attorney general who is not doing her job as expected,” said Wasserlauf.
Baharav Miara, for her part, expressed concern that the government was interfering politically in how the protests against it should be policed.
“I hope the government is not asking me to say that it wants more aggressive enforcement to suppress the protest against it, against the professional judgment of the [police] commanders on the ground and the state prosecution,” she stated in response to the wave of denunciations.
“I hope that the government is not expecting the law enforcement system to fill quotas for arrests or indictments against protesters,” she added.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who was also summoned to the meeting, insisted that it was the policy of police to prevent the blocking of highways and intersections and insisted that the force was apolitical.
“The policy is that it is forbidden to block roads. We could take batons and horses and clear [the protest] in a minute, but how many injuries would there be?” questioned Shabtai, according to a report by Kan News.
“All of Israel’s citizens see the selective enforcement, so I am raising a clear red flag here. It would not be pleasant if we had to petition the High Court of Justice against the attorney general who is not doing her job as expected,” said Wasserlauf.
Baharav Miara, for her part, expressed concern that the government was interfering politically in how the protests against it should be policed.
“I hope the government is not asking me to say that it wants more aggressive enforcement to suppress the protest against it, against the professional judgment of the [police] commanders on the ground and the state prosecution,” she stated in response to the wave of denunciations.
“I hope that the government is not expecting the law enforcement system to fill quotas for arrests or indictments against protesters,” she added.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who was also summoned to the meeting, insisted that it was the policy of police to prevent the blocking of highways and intersections and insisted that the force was apolitical.
“The policy is that it is forbidden to block roads. We could take batons and horses and clear [the protest] in a minute, but how many injuries would there be?” questioned Shabtai, according to a report by Kan News.
And he noted that the number of police officers harmed during the protests since January “is zero,” adding that no officer had required hospital treatment for injuries sustained during protests.
At the conclusion of the explosive hearing, the cabinet formally instructed Baharav-Miara to submit a written document within seven days stipulating her instructions for law enforcement procedures against the blocking of roads, protests outside ministers homes, and calls for military service refusal, “rebellion,” and “incitement to disobey,” although did not stipulate which orders such incitement referred to.
And the cabinet demanded she send law enforcement instructions by this Tuesday for dealing with protests blocking Ben Gurion airport, which anti-government protestors plan to do in a scheduled “Disruption Day” on that date.
The cabinet also demanded the attorney general specifically detail policies relating to the blocking of roads, including “if, and how often, it is allowed to block main traffic routes without enforcement actions being taken against the organizers of the blockade and those blocking the roads, without arrests being made or indictments being filed.”
Lapid and other members of the opposition condemned the cabinet’s treatment of Baharav-Miara and accused the government of undermining democratic norms in their behavior toward her.
“The government carried out a violent hazing against the attorney general today. The ministers’ ugly attack on Gali Bahara-Miara, a decent [person] and a ‘gatekeeper’ who is just doing her job, is a demonstration of what they are trying to do to Israeli society: bullying instead of the rule of law, government violence against citizens and officials, the forceful elimination of our democracy,” Lapid said.
And Labor leader Merav Michaeli compared the attack on Baharav-Miara to autocratic regimes such as Russia.
“The planned attack by the government against the attorney general should shake our foundations. The government of Israel summoned the attorney general to a hearing in which she was required to answer questions about how many protestors were arrested and taken for questioning. This isn’t happening in Putin’s Russia, it’s here in Netanyahu’s Israel,” said Michaeli.
And the cabinet demanded she send law enforcement instructions by this Tuesday for dealing with protests blocking Ben Gurion airport, which anti-government protestors plan to do in a scheduled “Disruption Day” on that date.
The cabinet also demanded the attorney general specifically detail policies relating to the blocking of roads, including “if, and how often, it is allowed to block main traffic routes without enforcement actions being taken against the organizers of the blockade and those blocking the roads, without arrests being made or indictments being filed.”
Lapid and other members of the opposition condemned the cabinet’s treatment of Baharav-Miara and accused the government of undermining democratic norms in their behavior toward her.
“The government carried out a violent hazing against the attorney general today. The ministers’ ugly attack on Gali Bahara-Miara, a decent [person] and a ‘gatekeeper’ who is just doing her job, is a demonstration of what they are trying to do to Israeli society: bullying instead of the rule of law, government violence against citizens and officials, the forceful elimination of our democracy,” Lapid said.
And Labor leader Merav Michaeli compared the attack on Baharav-Miara to autocratic regimes such as Russia.
“The planned attack by the government against the attorney general should shake our foundations. The government of Israel summoned the attorney general to a hearing in which she was required to answer questions about how many protestors were arrested and taken for questioning. This isn’t happening in Putin’s Russia, it’s here in Netanyahu’s Israel,” said Michaeli.
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