The office of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara responded on Tuesday evening to comments made by Justice Minister Yariv Levin regarding the government’s conduct vis-à-vis the Attorney General.
"Threats of dismissal will not deter the Attorney General from fulfilling her role," it said.
Speaking earlier on Tuesday at the Jerusalem Conference of the Besheva newspaper and Israel National News, Levin was asked by journalist Amit Segal whether the government seeks to fire the Attorney General after it completes the legislative process of the judicial reform.
One of the long term goals of the judicial reform plan is redefining the role of the attorney general and the legal advisors to government ministries. Israel's Attorney General is also chief prosecutor and has the formal authority to veto decisions of the executive, at his sole discretion, without warning and without the possibility of an appeal. Baharav-Miara has forbidden Prime Minister Netanyahu from discussing the proposed judicial reform with the Justice Minister, calling it a conflict of interest.
"Not everything can be done at once and not every change can be made in an instant. The move we are making is already complex and significant. It must not be mixed with the personal issues of one person or another and, in the current legal situation, even if we were to take such a step the Supreme Court would strike it down," Levin replied.
"I think that everything needs to be done when the time is right - in this sense - that I want to believe and hope that maybe the Attorney General will come to her senses and will understand that her role is not to cause the government and the minister to fail, and not to act behind their backs but rather to work together with them," he stated.
Levin noted, "We did not harshly condemn the Attorney General. We are living in a reality that has no equal in the world, where a high-ranking official, no matter how educated he is, has powers that no other person in any democratic country has."
"Unfortunately, where there are such draconian powers, one also needs to be careful and use them in a way that does not completely disrupt the order of government and democracy in the country. I personally did not find this understanding in the current Attorney General, and that’s putting it mildly," he added.