Avichai Mandelblit
Avichai MandelblitTomer Neuberg/Flash 90

This week, in an almost unprecedented move, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit took advantage of the fact that he was responding to case submission on behalf of the Civil Administration to demand that the Supreme Court direct the state to establish a criminal enforcement unit against those who violate construction laws in Judea and Samaria.

The Movement for Quality Governance and Democracy accused Mandelblit of "crossing all red lines," and noted noting that not only did he use his position as a representative of the government in court to force the move, but he concealed critical facts from the justices.

The case was brought to the Supreme Court in 2012 and involved two residents of Beit Aryeh, following the enforcement of a procedure against them for illegal construction. Then Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein saw this petition as an opportunity to promote the establishment of a criminal enforcement unit against residents of Judea and Samaria.

The demand for the creation of the enforcement unit is not related to the petition by the residents.

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon decided that he was interested in establishing the enforcement unit. However, the Finance Ministry demanded to know the source of the budget for the new unit, and since then the plans did not progress. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman stated that he does not see the need to allocate ministry resources and budget towards the establishment of the unit.

Mandelblit then worked to convene a special meeting of all of the government ministers involved in the matter, as well as the Prime Minister. However, the issue of the budget allocation for the unit was not resolved at the meeting and the ministers maintained their position against the establishment of the unit.

Mandelblit continued to demand that the government establish the unit despite the position of the ministers. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman wrote to the Attorney General recently and explained that he does not intend to establish the unit because of disagreements with the Finance Ministry. In the letter Liberman demanded that Mandelblit turn the contents of the letter over to the Supreme Court as part of the response the Attorney General was to submit to the justices in the case.

Despite the Defense Minister's request, Mandelblit did not attach Liberman's letter to his response and did not inform the justices of the Defense Ministry's position.

The two residents saw Mandelblit's response to the High Court of Justice and did not understand how the private matter of their petition was related to the establishment of the enforcement unit, writing to the judges that the matter is an intra-governmental unrelated to their petition.

The Movement for Quality Government and Democracy accused Mandelblit of abusing his authority. "We were shocked to see that it is precisely he who is responsible for the law enforcement system and the administrative law that allows hmself to act so aggressively against the government ministers using their authority as representatives of the government, The state is not in the courts in order to advance its position which the ministers do not accept due to their own considerations."

The movement also wrote: "We ask you to exercise your authority and instruct the Attorney General immediately to inform the High Court of Justice of the nullity of his statement."

The director of the Movement for Quality Government and Democracy, Yehuda Amrani, says that Mandelblit's conduct is extremely serious because it is not only an expression of the opposite position from the government's position, but also the concealment of factual information from the court and an attempt to harness the monopoly on representation if the government's decision mechanisms. "