A legal showdown looms in Israel as Netanyahu moves to oust top officials

By TIA GOLDENBERG

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel again is fighting a war on multiple fronts, but a battle is also brewing inside the country.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have joined anti-government protests in recent days. A former Supreme Court chief justice has warned of civil war. And experts are saying a constitutional crisis could be on the horizon if the Israeli government moves ahead with plans to fire top legal and security officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week he was firing Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, citing a crisis of confidence sparked by the failures to prevent Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Netanyahu’s government has also launched a process to dismiss the attorney general, accusing her of obstructing its agenda.

The moves come as the Shin Bet is investigating a possible infiltration of Netanyahu’s office by an Arab country and as Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.

They are setting up a showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary that is deepening divisions in Israel and could set off upheaval at a time when Israel is bogged down by war.

Tensions between the government and state institutions

Netanyahu’s government launched a sweeping overhaul of the judiciary in early 2023, a process that touched off mass protests.

Critics said the overhaul would undermine the country’s delicate system of checks and balances by granting too much power to Netanyahu. He and his governing coalition argued the judiciary had become overly interventionist and was blocking its legislative agenda.

Opponents also criticized Netanyahu for promoting the changes while on trial for corruption. They say a strong and independent judiciary is a necessary safeguard against authoritarian rule.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, which sparked the war in Gaza, paused the overhaul. But it opened up new divisions in the country over who shouldered blame for not preventing the deadliest day in Israel’s history.

Netanyahu has sidestepped accepting responsibility, seeking instead to point a finger at the heads of the military and the Shin Bet. He has long blamed the “deep state” for wanting to topple his rule.

In a surprise announcement last week, Netanyahu said he was dismissing Bar, sparking mass protests by critics who said the move would undermine Israel’s independent state institutions and was meant as punishment for the Shin Bet’s investigation into Netanyahu’s office, or to derail it entirely.

The step helped usher the far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir back into Netanyahu’s government, bolstering the Israeli leader’s rule ahead of a key budget vote. Ben-Gvir had resigned weeks earlier to protest a temporary ceasefire, and his return to office came hours after the resumption of the war in Gaza.

Bar himself said he had planned to leave his post in due time, including after he wrapped up the sensitive investigations into whether the Gulf state of Qatar — which has close ties with Hamas — had hired Netanyahu advisers to launch an influence campaign in Israel. Netanyahu has suggested, with little evidence, that the probe was a result of collusion between Bar and the attorney general as a way to thwart the domestic security chief’s dismissal.

Netanyahu’s government on Sunday voted to remove Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, beginning a process that could take weeks.

Disobeying the Supreme Court could bring chaos

In a country with no official constitution and just one house of parliament that is controlled by Netanyahu’s coalition, Israel’s Supreme Court has long served as an important check on government decisions.

The decision to dismiss Bar already has been challenged at the court, which issued an injunction that froze the move until further hearings. In the coming weeks, the court will be expected to rule on whether the dismissal was legal and whether there was a conflict of interest in light of the Qatar investigation.

With the attorney general, the government passed a largely symbolic decision Sunday calling for her dismissal. A committee, which is expected to be stacked with Netanyahu’s allies, will hear the government’s and Baharav-Miara’s positions before issuing a recommendation. Only then will Netanyahu’s government make its final decision on her fate.

If the committee goes ahead with her dismissal, it will likely face a challenge in the Supreme Court. Once again, it is expected to decide whether Netanyahu has a conflict of interest because he is firing the official who serves as the head of the public prosecution’s office that is trying him for corruption.

It is unclear whether the government would accept a decision it does not like.

“The dangerous scenario is if they don’t accept the ruling,” said Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. That would prompt a crisis over which authority’s rule should be followed — the court’s or the government’s — and could lead to chaos, he said.

Fears are mounting over internal strife

Those fears have grown since the dismissals were set in motion. In a series of media interviews this weekend, 88-year-old Aharon Barak, Israel’s preeminent legal mind, aired his concerns over the eruption of a potential civil war. He also joined nearly 20 former Supreme Court judges in a letter Sunday saying that firing the attorney general threatens the rule of law.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a tax revolt if the government disobeys the ruling. The leader of the country’s top labor union said ignoring a court ruling was a red line, suggesting he might launch general strikes in response.

The warnings have been eerily similar to 2023, when the legal overhaul was announced. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in sustained protests.

General strikes were called and reservists threatened to not report for military service if the overhaul went ahead. Military service is compulsory for most Jews at the age of 18, but the army relies heavily on older reserve units, especially during wartime. Such internal strife was seen by some analysts as a factor in the timing of Hamas’ attack. That upheaval could be just a precursor.

“Disobeying the courts is an illegal act,” wrote commentator Nadav Eyal in the Yediot Ahronot daily. The result could be “widespread civil disobedience, the type of which the government will not survive.”