Gali Baharav-Miara
Gali Baharav-MiaraShir Torem/Flash90

President Isaac Herzog contacted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara this week and asked her to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to participate in the talks he is attempting to mediate on the government's planned judicial reforms.

Herzog believes that Netanyahu is the only one who can lead the coalition to a compromise. However, the attorney general barred the prime minister from participating in the negotiations due to an alleged conflict of interest over his corruption trial.

Netanyahu has stated his support for the president's offer to mediate a compromise and wishes to lead the coalition's negotiations over the judicial reforms.

Haaretz journalist Gidi Weitz reported that Baharav-Miara refused the president's request.

The leaders of the protest movement against the government's planned judicial reforms have declared next Monday a "national day of struggle,” as the Knesset is set to vote on the override clause on that day.

The protest organizers call the bill a "Basic Law for Dictatorship" and "likely the most dangerous of the laws being advanced."

In contrast to Israel, in the United States, Attorney Generals tender their resignation when a new president is inaugurated. Another contrast is the power held by the Attorney General in Israel who serves in two roles: as Chief Prosecutor as well as chief legal counsel to the government who represents the state in legal proceedings. There have been instances when the Attorney General disagreed with the prime minister and therefore refused to represent the governmemt in court, a situation which the proposed reforms suggest solving by allowing another attorney to appear instead.

Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked proposed that the role of Chief Prosecutor be removed from the Attorney General's purview. As Prof. Yedidya Stern, former dean of the Bar Ilan law school, who is critical of the proposed judicial reform but agrees that changes in the judicial system are necessary, wrote in 2021: "The attorney-general currently holds vast governmental power in his hands, a center of gravity of authority that challenges the principle of separation of powers in a democracy.".