Justice Minister Yariv Levin this morning (Sunday) informed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that he intends to give up her representation and use private representation in his response to the Supreme Court petition demanding that he convene the Judicial Selection Committee.
"Given the state of things you have created in regard to the petition in question, due to your usual extreme and oppositional positions to the government's positions, and in response to the question you asked me regarding the manner of representation in the petitions in question, I am forced to inform you that this time too I will require independent representation," Levin wrote to the attorney general.
He added: "The state of affairs you have created is improper, and the role of the attorney general is to represent the government and its members and not to force them to need independent representation again and again."
"In the situation you have created, there is no choice but to make available to me an adequate period of time for the purpose of locating a representative as well as for the preparation of an answer by him. I will ask you to update the court," he concluded.
The opposition Yesh Atid party said in response: "Justice Minister Yariv Levin will do everything in order not to convene the Judicial Selection Committee and fulfill his responsibilities as minister. Thousands of cases are piling up, citizens are being harmed, but Levin is only interested in one thing - destroying the court, making everything political, and tearing apart Israeli society. We filed the petition and will not agree to postpone the hearing, Levin's games constitute a fatal blow to the legal system and the citizens of Israel."
The Movement for Quality Government responded: "This is a simple administrative petition for [Levin's] failure to act without authority and in violation of the law. The fundamental rules established in a long series of judgments in the past are that the government is represented and that its counsel in the courts is the attorney general and she alone."
Last week, Baharav Miara responded to Levin's criticisms of her repeated refusals to represent the government before the Supreme Court by stating: “The Attorney General’s Office under my leadership will continue to fulfill its role to assist the government in achieving its policies within the boundaries of the law."
“At the same time, the expectation that the Attorney General’s Office will transgress its role and avoid overseeing the executive branch to its satisfaction will mute its voice clarifying petitions in the Supreme Court of Justice, or will be deterred from serving as a gatekeeper is an illegitimate expectation,” she continued. “Doing so would severely harm the rule of law, the proper functioning of government, and in practice the public."
Minister Levin's office responded: "At no point did he threaten her with dismissal, the attorney general does not give an explanation in her letter for the gap between how she treated the previous government and the current government and opposes almost everything the government wants to promote. For eight months, Levin has been waiting to receive a letter from the attorney general regarding the reforms and even a sentence on one of the proposals we tried to promote - she did not do even that."