Supreme Court demands Netanyahu justify refusal to fire senior minister

“No authority to order this” – Decision by Supreme Court to take up attorney general’s petition demanding firing of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparks backlash.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to respond to a petition filed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in which the AG demanded he fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The order, signed by Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit, instructs Netanyahu to justify his refusal to adhere to Baharav-Miara’s recommendation that Ben-Gvir be removed from office. Baharav-Miara has accused Ben-Gvir of interfering in police investigations and in the promotion of police officers.

Amit’s decision sets a hearing date of March 24, with Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir ordered to respond in writing by March 10.

The judicial panel tapped to hear the matter is an expanded nine-judge tribunal.

The move drew controversy over both the court’s decision to take up the case and Amit’s handling of the size and composition of the panel, which enabled the chief justice to avoid including Justice David Mintz, who is considered part of the court’s conservative wing.

Journalist Amit Segal noted that the hearing was slated to take place during Mintz’s vacation and that the decision to expand the panel from five to nine members at this early stage enabled Amit to avoid being forced to hold an additional hearing with Mintz taking part.

“Amit uses these maneuvers again and again to engineer a majority,” Segal wrote.

Ben-Gvir responded to the order in a brief message posted to his X account.

“You do not have the authority,” he wrote. “There will be no coup.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), who has frequently clashed with Amit, condemned the court’s order as an example of judicial overreach.

“The pyromaniacs in the High Court have long been behaving as if they are the government, they are the Knesset, and now they are also replacing the people,” Levin said.

“Without even the slightest legal authority, in absolute contradiction to the most basic principles of any democracy, they are creating with their own hands an unprecedented constitutional crisis.”

“The entire government must stand behind the Prime Minister and say: enough. The one who dismisses ministers is the Prime Minister — and only him.”

Members of the ruling coalition have called on Netanyahu to defy the Supreme Court if it orders him to remove Ben-Gvir from office.

Baharav-Miara has claimed that Ben-Gvir violated an agreement the two are said to have reached last April for him to limit his direct involvement in police work.

While the court had been scheduled to address the AG’s petition in January with a five-judge panel, the original hearing was scrapped after the court said Netanyahu had failed to properly respond to their request for information.