Justice Minister Demands Independent Representation in High Court Petition, AG Siding with Petitioners
Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Sunday asked AG Gali Baharav-Miara to permit him to hire independent representation in the pending High Court hearing on a petition to compel him, Levin, to assemble the committee to appoint judges.
Levin has been delaying the session of the committee to appoint judges because he is opposed to its makeup which includes three supreme court justices and two members of the bar. He believes the committee should reflect the electoral advantage of the coalition parties.
Levin justified his request, telling the AG: “Due to your usual extreme and adversarial positions against the government’s views, and in response to your question regarding the manner of representation in the petitions in question, I am forced to inform you that this time, too, I will require independent representation.”
Levin noted: “All this is done without detracting from the fact that the state of affairs you are creating is improper and that the role of the attorney general is to represent the government and its members and not to force them to acquire independent representation again and again.”
Last Wednesday, Levin wrote the AG that although her role is to represent the government, himself included, in petitions that are submitted against them to the High Court, he feels that he is not being represented at all in the legal process and that his position is not being presented to the Supreme Court.
Levin complained that Baharav-Miara sent him a short draft of his position, without the slightest effort to forge any argument in its support. The AG also told the court that “the minister made it clear that he is not asking for a separate representation but to bring his position within the framework of this response,” meaning the response that attacks the Justice Minister’s position, and sides with the petition against him.
Levin accused the AG of lying to the court (he was exceedingly polite about it), and wrote: “In effect, anyone who reads your response will think that it is a petition against me, and not a response on my behalf. Beyond mentioning my position as I conveyed it to you, your entire response presents an extreme position against me that fully supports the position of the petitioners, without any trace of an attempt on your part to support my position with even one element from the multitude of arguments concerning the matter.”
He added: “Things reach their climax when you, as the one representing me, request that an order be issued against me exactly as the petitioners requested.”
Levin also wrote: “Can this be called a proper representation? Is there anywhere in the world, even in non-democratic countries, a situation where the person who is supposed to represent a party to a proceeding, requests that a judgment be given against the party he represents? How do you name a legal procedure where instead of two parties, the lawyer of one of them appears and also represents the position of the other party? Isn’t this like a soccer game in which only one team participates and kicks the ball into an empty goal?”
Baharav-Miara responded by accusing the Justice Minister of scheming to fire her (Coalition Leaders Wonder Why the AG Is Still Walking Among Them). https://www.jewishpress.com/news/the-courts/justice-minister-demands-independent-representation-in-high-court-petition-ag-siding-with-petitioners/2023/09/03/
SO WHAT IS “SHE” DOING ABOUT IT
Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem and Communications Minister Shlomo Karai, both from Likud, on Thursday, asked the High Court of Justice to rule that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara would not take part in a hearing of the petition against them. The petition was submitted last March by Mishael Vaknin, Chairman of the Board of the Israel Post Company after he was sacked by Amsalem and Karai.
Baharav-Mihara asked the court for additional time to prepare her response to the petition, but Amsalem and Karai told the court that it doesn’t need to hear the position of someone who is not a party to the dispute, which is why the AG should be deleted from the list of responders.
As Minister Karai put it: “In light of the fact that the AG does not represent Ministers Karai, Amsalem, and Smotrich, and in light of the fact that she is not ready to meet the timetable set by the honorable court––even though she informed the ministers more than two weeks ago that she had formulated her position against them––It seems desirable to let the ministers represent their position properly, without the background noise of someone who is not involved in the matter.”
And so began the most recent chapter in the saga of the Netanyahu coalition and former Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s parting gift, the Trojan horse Baharav-Miara.
Constitution Committee Chairman Mk Simcha Rothman put it succinctly in his Thursday tweet:
The Attorney General refuses to represent:Is she still the legal counsel to the government?The government in the high court’s debate of the reasonability clause.
The prime minister at the high court’s debate of the incapacity provision.
The justice minister in the high court debate of the petition to compel him to assemble the committee to appoint judges.
The ministers of communications, regional cooperation, and finance in the high court hearing of the Israel Post petition.
Who does Gali Baharav represent?
That last line has to do with the two contradictory roles the Attorney General has in Israel: she is both the head of the judicial system, including the prosecution and the courts, as well as the legal adviser to the government, which, yes, means that she is able to prosecute the very ministers she is legally defending.
Yes, dear reader, Israel’s Attorney General is the most powerful person in Western politics, and she wasn’t elected by anyone, in fact, she was appointed by the sworn enemy of the current government.
The reasonable question is: why not just fire the insubordinate AG? And the answer is, firing the AG is not so simple. According to Government Resolution 2274, adopted by PM Ehud Barak’s government based on the recommendations of the Meir Shamgar Committee that had been established by the Netanyahu government, there are four acceptable reasons to fire an attorney general:
- If there are substantial and prolonged disagreements between the government and the AG, which create a situation that prevents effective cooperation.
- If the AG committed an act that is not appropriate for his or her position
- If the AG is no longer qualified to perform his or her duties
- If a criminal investigation is underway against the AG
But even though the first reason amply describes the current terrible working relationship between the government and the AG, the Justice Minister can’t just fire her – he must submit a complaint to the same committee that chose her. And even though the committee chairman, Retired Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, vehemently objected to Baharav-Miara’s appointment in the first place, suggesting she lacked the necessary qualifications (she hadn’t seen the inside of a criminal court as an attorney), the committee majority is affiliated with the opposition. And even if the committee accepts the justice minister’s plea to dismiss, Baharav-Miara would surely take it to the High Court of Justice which would handily dismiss her dismissal.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Thursday sent the AG a very angry letter, attacking her for perpetually representing forces that are hostile to the government, while, in the case of the committee to appoint judges, she also won’t allow him to get his own representation.
I told you, Israel’s Attorney General is the most powerful person in Western politics.
Baharav-Miara’s response reads like something out of a comic book, just simplistic enough and self-congratulatory enough to appeal to the anarchist mob:
“Threats of layoffs heard in the media will not deter me and my people from continuing to fulfill our duties,” she announced, likely imagining herself to be that bear-chested woman rushing the barricades in Eugène Delacroix’s heroic painting, La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People).
She continued: “The expectation that the legal counsel to the government would fail in its duty and refrain from reflecting the legal situation to the political echelon, mute its voice in the context of examining petitions in court, or shy away from serving as a gatekeeper – is an illegitimate expectation.”
Levin’s circle insisted that “at no point did the minister threaten to fire the AG.”
A lot of good that’s going to do him.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/left-vs-right/coalition-leaders-wonder-why-the-ag-is-still-walking-among-them/2023/09/01/
TO WHAT PURPOSE
IS HASHEM
CAUSING THIS TO HAPPEN??
3 comments:
This wicked AG is a real amaleikite! The leftists in the medina have always won because of the infrastructure of the state from the start, but this time, I believe, H' is taking over and Moshiach Ben Yosef will be revealed to Am Yisrael! The time has come for the Geulah; we must show Hashem that we are determined to do the right thing in His Eyes, so to speak, and there is no turning back - Hazman higiya for our Geulah Shleimah, k'heref ayin!
You’re so correct, and I hope it happens before 2024!
AMEN!
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