Israel is facing a constitutional crisis after prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed a new internal security chief in defiance of the attorney general’s instructions.
Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara has said investigations into ties between Mr Netanyahu’s office and Qatar put the prime minister in a conflict of interest.
Ms Baharav-Miara said the process of appointing Maj Gen David Zini to lead the Israel Security Agency (ISA) Shin Bet was tainted. She said she had informed Mr Netanyahu earlier this week that he must refrain, for now, from any action concerning the appointment of a new ISA director after the high court of justice ruled that his decision to oust Ronen Bar from the post had been made unlawfully.
Mr Bar, under intense pressure from coalition politicians, announced last month that he would leave his position on June 15th.
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The Movement for Quality Government NGO said it would petition the high court against the appointment. Critics of the government accused Mr Netanyahu of removing Mr Bar because he was an independent gatekeeper.
Cabinet ministers praised Mr Netanyahu’s decision. Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote that Maj Gen Zini is a “moral and creative officer who goes on the offensive and takes initiative, and is the right man at the right time to rehabilitate the ISA”.
Minister Shlomo Karhi also welcomed the decision. “Just like that: the rule of law, not the rule of the bureaucrats. The prime minister is the one who was elected by the people, not the attorney general. It’s his prerogative and even his duty to appoint as ISA director someone he thinks is fit to maintain Israel’s security at this fateful hour.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Maj Gen Zini to announce that he could not accept the appointment until the high court rules on the matter.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz accused Mr Netanyahu of “undermining the rule of law once again and leading the country into a constitutional collision at the expense of Israel’s security”.
After the appointment was announced, demonstrators lit a bonfire in Tel Aviv in protest at what they called a violation of the high court’s ruling not to make an appointment at this juncture.
Hitting back at the criticism, the prime minister’s office issued a statement on Friday stressing that the new ISA chief will not interfere in ongoing investigations into the links between Mr Netanyahu’s office and Qatar, in what has been dubbed the Qatargate affair.
The investigations by police and the ISA were prompted by allegations of financial ties between Qatar and aides of Mr Netanyahu.
The prime minister’s office added that any delay in the appointment would be damaging to national security.
