Regional Cooperation Minister David (Dudi) Amsalem (Likud) slammed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara as being "unfit for the position."
Speaking with Israel's "Meet the Press" program, Amsalem said, "She is not fit for the position and she never was. I think that if she has a bit of self-respect, she should hand in the keys to her office and go home." He added that if it were up to him, she would have been dismissed the moment the new government was sworn in. In the United States, in contrast to Israel, the Attorney General submits a letter of resignation the day a new president takes office and he can decided whether to accept it or not.
The Attorney-Generals Law is crucial, he added.
"I believe that the people chose the government to rule and to lead, something which has not happened for 75 years already. In the Likud we can't manage to appoint a [non-elected] official and we can't make a decision. For three-and-a-half months I have been trying to appoint a Director-General, but Mr. Gil Limon is not allowing me to," he said.
Limon serves as the deputy to the Attorney General for public-administrative law.
Amsalem added, "From the founding of the State until today, the Right has not ruled at all. There are almost no top [bureaucratic] officials who hold right-wing positions, there are no Likud supporters [in governmental positions]. But more than half the nation are Likud supporters."
Under the Attorney Generals Law, the A-G's recommendations would not be be binding for government officials and will not be able to change the legal status of their plans. The law would also allow the government to appoint a private legal representative to represent it, unlike the current situation in which the A-G must approve any private appointment.
The bill is considered controversial, however, then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) rejected in October 2022 a recommendation from A-G Baharav-Miara, stating that as A-G, she is the Knesset's legal adviser but her recommendations are advice and not legally binding.
Opposition MK Sharren Haskel (National Unity) responded at the protest to Amsalem's words, saying, "I want to send a message from here to to Dudi Amsalem! Dudi, you big zero, you're inciting and violent. Come catch us and jail us, 250,000 patriotic citizens of Israel! Shame!