Israel’s justice minister Yariv Levin has initiated proceedings to remove attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara from office, accusing her of thwarting the will of the government.
The move paved the way for an unprecedented constitutional crisis and was the clearest indication to date that the judicial overhaul, pursued by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right wing government, is back.
The first year of Netanyahu’s government was dominated by efforts to shift the balance of power away from the judiciary to the executive.
Opponents of the radical reforms claimed the measures would undermine Israeli democracy and hundreds of thousands took part in weekly protests. The country was in turmoil, divided as never before. Thousands of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists, including pilots and intelligence personnel, threatened to refuse to volunteer for military service.
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Then came the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack and the start of an unprecedented, prolonged, multi-front war. Citizens rushed to join their army reserve units and the government ditched the divisive legislation, instead promoting national unity to achieve victory.
By the end of 2024 the war had shifted in Israel’s favour with the defeat of Hamas in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon (although both groups maintain limited fighting capabilities), the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the weakening of Iran’s regional axis.
Now, the judicial overhaul is back. Big time.
Baharav-Miara has ruled on dozens of occasions that moves planned by the government were illegal. Most recently she ruled that the coalition could no longer delay drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.
“The attorney general acts as the long arm of the government’s opponents,” argued Levin, “and spares no effort to thwart the will of the voter.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid termed the move against the attorney general as “criminal, violent and unconstitutional”.
So far, the attorney general has resisted the pressure to resign, which has made her a hate figure for right-wing activists.
Proponents of the judicial overhaul argue that it will realign the system of checks and balances that has given the liberal courts too much say in how legislation is crafted and decisions are made, undermining the will of the electorate.
In January, Levin refused to recognise the appointment of liberal judge Yitzhak Amit as Israel’s new supreme court president after trying for months to block the appointment.
Levin, backed by foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar, is also moving ahead with another controversial piece of the judicial overhaul: the government takeover of the judicial appointments committee. If he succeeds, the government will have control over judicial appointments from the lowest courts up to the supreme court.
Career-minded judges will be reluctant to block laws passed by politicians who decide on their professional future.
On Sunday, the attorney general called for the Bill to be revised and the move is expected to be challenged in the high court, if passed into law.
Baharav-Miara argued that an independent judiciary is the central guarantor in the Israeli system of government to prevent the abuse of governmental power. She also argued that the proposed method of selecting judges would be tainted by political bargaining.
Netanyahu dismissed any link between the attacks on the attorney general and his ongoing corruption trial, where he is fighting charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The judiciary is not the only target for the Netanyahu government. Communications minister Shlomo Karhi is pushing through legislation to privatise or close down Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. Separate legislation will give the Knesset parliament control over Kan’s annual budget.
Other institutions are also under attack. A bill to ban people from displaying the Palestinian flag in the space of a publicly funded institution is aimed at universities.
In November the Knesset passed a law allowing the education minister to fire teachers who allow any expression of “sympathy with a terror organisation or incident” with a vague definition of what constitutes terror.
“The irresponsible weakening of institutions that have served as a source of Israel’s strength and prosperity for decades is a dangerous phenomenon, especially in time of war. Our leaders have much work to do, and time is of the essence,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, after presenting his organisation’s annual report to president Yitzhak Herzog.
The report found that Israelis’ sense that democratic rule in the country is under threat is at an almost record high.
“The trust we have in ourselves, in our people, and in our state, has always been a cornerstone for us. When trust is shaken, when the foundations are destabilised, the nation is in danger,” said Herzog.
The year of protests against the judicial overhaul has been followed by weekly demonstrations urging the government to do more to bring back the hostages from Gaza and set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failures of October 7th.
The opposition forces are exhausted and this is what the government is banking on, buoyed by Israel’s recent military victories, as it returns to its divisive domestic agenda.
