In a highly consequential decision, the High Court of Justice decided unanimously on Monday to recommend to the government that it cancel its decision to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The court told the government to inform it by September 14 whether it accepted the court’s recommendation to abolish the new method for firing the attorney general that the government established in June, and by extension to cancel the dismissal of Baharav-Miara.
The decision by the nine-judge panel, a majority of whom are conservatives, was prompted by the government’s failure to file a response to petitions to the court against its new process for firing the attorney general. The government had also reportedly decided not to have a lawyer represent its case in a High Court hearing that had been scheduled for this Wednesday.
The court canceled that hearing due to the government’s failure to file its response.
The ruling indicated conclusively that the court sees the government decision to change the method of firing the attorney general — after it had already embarked on the original process established in the year 2000 — as highly problematic, and that it is likely to rule against it in the petitions calling for the annulment of the government decision to fire Baharav-Miara.
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Justice Minister Yariv Levin described the High Court’s decision as a “theater of the absurd,” and strongly implied that the government would not comply with any final ruling annulling its decision to fire the attorney general.
Illustrative: The High Court of Justice hears petitions against the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in Jerusalem, April 8, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid welcomed the decision, saying it would prevent the government from “acting like a criminal.”
The government voted unanimously on August 4 to fire Baharav-Miara, but only after it failed to complete the dismissal process established in the year 2000, which determined that a public, professional committee be charged with recommending the appointment and dismissal of attorneys general.
In a cabinet resolution in June this year, the government established a ministerial committee to make the recommendation instead, and adopted that committee’s recommendation when it fired her in August.
Even before the government fired the attorney general, Justice Noam Sohlberg, who presided over the initial proceedings of the petitions against the process change, recommended the government return to the original method.
Once the government actually fired Baharav-Miara, Sohlberg immediately froze her dismissal, ruled that her legal advice to the government would remain binding, and forbade the government from changing its working relationship with her.
In its decision on Monday, the court recommended to the government that it return to the original method for firing the attorney general by consulting the public, professional committee established in 2000.
The court said in its decision that it had not been presented with any justification for the government’s deviation from the original method.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a Knesset committee meeting on November 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
The court wrote that if the government decides not to respond to it recommendation, then final responses can be submitted to the court by October 30. The court would then be able to issue a final ruling on the matter.
It also stressed that Sohlberg’s decision last month freezing Baharav-Miara’s dismissal and upholding the binding nature of her legal advice on the government remains in place.
Levin denounced the court’s decision and insisted the government was justified in firing her since there had been a breakdown of cooperation between the two sides.
“You can’t force the government, especially when we’re in the midst of a war, to work with her even for one day longer. The government and only the government will determine who its attorney general will be,” said Levin.
“No judicial order can force cooperation, which did not exist, with Attorney Baharav-Miara, and there will not be any,” he said.
Levin has refused to refer to Baharav-Miara as the attorney general since the government formally fired her in August, despite the High Court’s order freezing her dismissal.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks during a Knesset plenum session, June 23, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz/Knesset Spokesperson)
Lapid said the decision meant that “Levin has failed,” adding, “An illegitimate minority government cannot fire [law enforcement] gatekeepers who do their work dutifully.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the primary petitioners against Baharav-Miara’s dismissal, described the decision as “an unprecedented legal achievement that proves that our petition is utterly correct.”
The organization added, however, that the court should have issued a final ruling annulling the dismissal, due to the government’s failure to file a response to the petitions, arguing that “a government that is a law unto itself, boycotts hearings, and ignores court deadlines does not deserve the kindness of the court.”
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