Israel’s political crisis deepens after vote against attorney-general

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The Benjamin Netanyahu government climbed its efforts to overthrow the public prosecutor, and intensify a bitter dispute with the legal authorities of Israel, which brought the country to the brink of the constitutional crisis.

In an unprecedented move, the Cabinet supported on Sunday unanimously a proposal without confidence against Galle Bahrav Mayra, the country’s largest legal official, and one of the main checks on government authority.

Netanyahu’s allies accused Baharav Mayra of working systematically against the government’s agenda. Justice Minister Yarif Levin claimed two weeks ago that she made an impossible “effective cooperation”, and said on Sunday that she was keeping the government in “contempt”.

But in a letter issued before the vote, Bahrav Mayra-a legal advisor to the government and the head of the public prosecutor-refused to seek it to strive to work above the law.

She wrote that the movement of confidence “does not seek to enhance confidence but rather the loyalty of the political leadership, not the ruling, but … power without limits.”

“The government seeks to be above the law and act without checks and balances, even in very sensitive periods.”

The vote paves the way for a general committee to consider the dismissal of Baharrav Mayra. It is the latest development in a broader conflict between Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli state.

This comes at a time when Israel is intensifying its renewable operations in Gaza after ending a truce with Hamas last week, as Palestinian officials said on Sunday that the number of deaths from the Israeli attack had passed 50,000, as the Israeli forces pushed Rafah in the southern pocket.

Netanyahu and his allies have been on the heads of Logbars with the legal authorities of Israel since he was accused by the predecessor of Baharrav Mayra of corruption-which is what he denied-in 2019, which sparked a year trial that still shows no sign of the end.

The conflict intensified when Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, and his government began a controversial effort to reduce the powers of the judiciary, before lifting some plans in the face of the largest wave of protests in the streets in Israeli history.

In recent months, the dispute erupted again, as the ministers in legislation will give politicians a greater opinion on the appointment of the Supreme Court judges, and Levin refused to recognize the authority of the President of the Supreme Court, who spent their appointment a year in an attempt.

The government is also trying to exclude the head of the local espionage agency, Ronen Bar. The ministers threaten to ignore the Supreme Court if they are judging against such a step.

With the government intensifying its efforts to remove Baharav-Miara and Bar in recent days, there have been new protests, with tens of thousands of people in gatherings against plans on Saturday night.

In an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Sunday, opposition leader Yar Lapid said that if the government refuses to obey the orders of the court, Israel is no longer. [be] democracy, “has caused the possibility of citizens to refuse to pay their taxes as a form of protest.

“If the government declares that it will not obey the court, this is everything … this is the end of the matter as we knew it. It is a different country,” he said. “Everything is on the table, from the tax insurgency to closing the Knesset.”