Israel’s political crisis deepens after vote against attorney-general

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has stepped up efforts to oust the attorney-general, intensifying a bitter feud with Israel’s legal authorities that has brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

In an unprecedented move, the cabinet on Sunday unanimously backed a motion of no confidence against Gali Baharav-Miara, who is the country’s most senior legal official, and one of the key checks on government power.

Netanyahu’s allies have accused Baharav-Miara of systematically working against the government’s agenda. Justice minister Yariv Levin claimed two weeks ago that she had made “effective co-operation” impossible, and on Sunday said she was holding the government in “contempt”.

But in a letter released ahead of the vote, Baharav-Miara — who is both legal adviser to the government and head of the public prosecution — dismissed the government’s claims, and accused it of seeking to operate above the law.

The no-confidence motion “does not seek to promote trust but rather loyalty to the political leadership, not governance but . . . power without limits”, she wrote.

“The government is seeking to be above the law and to act without checks and balances, even in extremely sensitive periods.”

The vote paves the way for convening a public committee to consider Baharav-Miara’s dismissal. It is the latest twist in a broader clash between Netanyahu’s coalition and other organs of the Israeli state.

It comes as Israel intensifies its renewed ground operations in Gaza after ending a truce with Hamas last week, with Palestinian officials saying on Sunday that the death toll from Israel’s offensive had passed 50,000, as Israeli forces pushed back into Rafah in the south of the shattered enclave.

Netanyahu and his allies have been at loggerheads with Israel’s legal authorities since Baharav-Miara’s predecessor indicted him on corruption charges — which he denies — in 2019, sparking a years-long trial that still shows no sign of ending.

The conflict intensified when Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 and his government embarked on a controversial effort to limit the powers of the judiciary, before shelving some of its plans in the face of the biggest wave of street protests in Israeli history.

In recent months, the disagreement has flared again, with ministers advancing legislation that will give politicians a greater say over the appointment of supreme court judges, and Levin refusing to recognise the authority of the head of the Supreme Court, whose appointment he spent a year trying to block.

The government is also trying to sack the head of the Shin Bet domestic spy agency, Ronen Bar. Ministers are threatening to ignore the Supreme Court if it rules against such a move.

As the government has stepped up its efforts to remove Baharav-Miara and Bar in recent days, there have been fresh protests, with tens of thousands of people taking part in rallies against the plans on Saturday night.

In an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday, opposition leader Yair Lapid said that if the government refused to obey court orders, Israel would “no longer (be) a democracy”, and raised the prospect of citizens threatening to refuse to pay their taxes as a form of protest.

“If the government announces that it won’t obey a court order, that’s it . . . That’s the end of the matter as we knew it. It’s a different country,” he said. “Everything’s on the table, from a tax revolt to shutting down the Knesset.”