Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara was assailed by Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman and other coalition MKs on Tuesday over her handling of efforts to tackle crime in the Arab community, and her conduct as attorney general more broadly.
The scenes in committee descended into total chaos and furious shouting matches on several occasions, as opposition MKs decried the attacks on the embattled attorney general, while coalition lawmakers continued to denounce what they alleged was her politically motivated conduct.
During the hearing, Rothman, of the far-right Religious Zionism party, accused Baharav-Miara of lying, called one of her responses “an utter disgrace,” and shouted at her not to interrupt him, while Likud MK Moshe Saada went so far as to accuse her of “betraying” the country and its values.
The subject of the hearing was the fight against crime in the Arab community, as well as the work of the governmental commission of inquiry into the use of spyware by the police and other law enforcement agencies.
During the calmer moments of the session, State Attorney Amit Airman was able to inform the committee that in 2024, some 65 cases of murder in the Arab community had been brought to prosecutors, in which 42 indictments were filed, figures that he said represented an 18 percent increase over the previous year.
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Kicking off proceedings, Rothman blasted Baharav-Miara for what he alleged was her failure to provide the committee with information it requested regarding the functioning of the working group tasked with tackling organized crime, which she heads.
Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman speaks at a committee hearing, September 30, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
He then went on to accuse her of ignoring the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the panel on a weekly basis, and of failing to include a government appointee on tackling crime in the Arab community, specifically in the panel’s meetings.
Baharav-Miara said that the working group had met only five times this year, but insisted that she had informed Netanyahu that convening the panel, which includes herself and the police commissioner, every week was not feasible, and that lower-level panels had convened 20 times.
The attorney general told Rothman as an aside that he should not interfere in her working relationship with the prime minister, causing him to explode with indignant anger.
“This is an utter disgrace,” Rothman exclaimed, and then shouted at her to “stop interrupting me,” as she sought to explain.
“I have never experienced a public servant who interrupted a committee chair so much. When the prime minister requests that the working group you head meet once a week, I am not interfering with your working relationship with the prime minister. Your job here is to answer,” he bellowed.
Baharav-Miara nevertheless insisted that the prime minister’s request for a weekly meeting had been dropped by Netanyahu himself.
Likud MK Saada, then permitted by Rothman to speak, blasted the attorney general for a slew of what he asserted were her failures, including for investigating allegations of physical abuse made against the IDF Force 100 prison riot control unit, which was implicated in severe abuse of Palestinian detainees in the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility.
Calling the attorney general and the state attorney by their first names, Saada denounced Baharav-Miara for carrying out such investigations into IDF soldiers “who came to defend us on October 7.”
His comments led to bedlam in the committee, as opposition and coalition MKs screamed at each other over his allegations.
Likud MK Moshe Saada speaks at a hearing of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, September 30, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
“You have caused anarchy in the country,” he told both Baharav-Miara and Aisman.
“You have betrayed the basic values of the State Attorney’s Office, of pursuing justice, of protecting citizens. Instead of pursuing justice, you are persecuting soldiers such as those from Force 100. The same people who came to protect us on October 7.”
Five reservist soldiers from the Force 100 unit have been indicted over their alleged role in the abuse, while another reservist was convicted and sentenced to seven months in jail for abusing detainees in the same facility.
Rothman went on to accuse Baharav-Miara of politically motivated conduct in her differing responses to several police investigations, accusing her of intervening when such investigations affected what he insinuated were her political allies — such as Channel 13 reporter Aviad Glickman — but failing to intervene when her supposed political enemies were investigated, such as the father of incoming Shin Bet chief David Zini.
“I’m asking about your judgment,” Rothman told the attorney general.
Baharav-Miara declined to respond, saying that Rothman was “intervening” in open investigations, which she could not comment on, which again incensed the lawmaker, who accused her of “lying to the committee” and told her to apologize since he had merely asked about the motivation for her intervention and not about the investigation itself.
Committee member MK Gilad Kariv of the Democrats opposition party, who was ejected by Rothman from the hearing on at least one occasion, accused coalition MKs of “speaking crassly to the attorney general, beating his gavel like crazy, and bringing the constitution committee down to the gutter.”
Kariv wrote on X after he had been removed from the hearing, “The last thing that interests Rothman and his friends on the racist and nationalistic right is the fight against severe organized crime. The only fight that interests this dangerous MK is the fight against the legal system.”
Baharav-Miara has been regularly denounced by members of the current government, which voted in August to fire her from her post, though the High Court of Justice immediately froze the move, and has urged the government to revoke the ousting.
She has also infuriated ultra-Orthodox leaders by increasing pressure on Haredi draft dodgers, requiring the military to send thousands of enlistment orders to yeshiva students, and pushing for the arrests of those who don’t comply.
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