Ben Gvir: A-G Thinks She’s the Prime Minister

By Yisrael Price

YERUSHALAYIM — Incoming national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir derided Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for warning that the new government’s agenda threatens democracy.

“The attorney general mistakenly thinks that she is the real prime minister of Israel. Any law she disagrees with becomes a ‘danger to democracy,’” said Ben Gvir, whose proposals to broaden the ministry’s authority over the police has drawn heavy criticism.

“It’s a shame that she does not participate in the discussions on the bill in the Knesset, because then she would have discovered that the problem is that the police regulations do not allow the minister to set policy, even though in practice all the professionals believe that the minister should set the policy for police activity,” he said.

In a speech earlier in the day at a legal conference at the University of Haifa, Baharav-Miara intoned that “politicization of the law enforcement system will lead to a serious blow to the most basic principles of the rule of law – equality, the absence of arbitrariness and the absence of bias.

“If there is even a sense of politicization of the law enforcement system, it will be a fatal blow to its ability to function and a serious injury to public trust. In a democratic country, it is inappropriate to change the relationship between the political echelon and the law enforcement system with lightning legislation,” she was quoted by Globes, referring to the fast-tracking of the bills, even before the new government is sworn in.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid responded to Ben Gvir: “I call on Netanyahu to restrain his partners. Netanyahu is weak and Ben Gvir is taking advantage of this to attack the attorney general like a common thug.”

“The disdain for legal proceedings, the blitz of legislation even before the government is formed and the attack on officeholder who cannot respond is an affront to the state’s values,” Lapid charged, according to The Times of Israel.