Government processes consistently ‘flawed,’ warns Attorney General Netanyahu – Israel Politics

As Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara warned in a strongly worded letter to Netanyahu on Tuesday, the working procedures of the government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are persistently “flawed.”

“For some time, significant government decisions have been made using flawed work processes,” the letter begins.

“This is done without professional staff giving them any advance notice; while being passed on to the relevant bodies for comment just before or during cabinet meetings, in a manner that does not allow professional bodies or ministers to discharge their roles and responsibilities; and based on unauthorised legal opinions, whether by private individuals or the Secretary to the Government,” Baharav-Miara continued.

“As a result, the law was broken and harm was caused to society,” she wrote.

“We have warned in the past about the disruption of government processes and the breakdown of the rules that govern government. This has recently reached an extreme,” the attorney general wrote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, July 13, 2024. (Source: DUDU BACHAR/POOL)

As an example, she cited the government’s decision on April 30, in which it granted itself the right to have a private lawyer represent all government ministries at the High Court of Justice hearing on the issue of haredi service in the IDF. Baharav-Miara agreed at that time to privately represent the government plenum, but not specific ministries, such as the defense and finance ministries.

Illegal decision-making and unauthorized security opinions

The government’s attempt to expand private representation was intended to “prevent the attorney general from ensuring that the government’s actions in the matter of establishing and financing haredim are legal,” Baharav-Miara wrote in a letter Tuesday. The High Court ruled in June that the government’s decision was unlawful because only the attorney general had the authority to grant the government private representation and define its limits.

Another “serious” example was a legal opinion issued by Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs in a letter dated July 31, which had “serious security implications.” Baharav-Miara did not elaborate, but emphasized that Fuchs was not authorized to issue such opinions.

“As a general rule, a government secretariat must function in a professional and dignified manner to ensure that the government works properly. The primary responsibility of a government secretary is to ensure that the government takes decisions by maintaining proper and systematic working procedures for the good of the public. This would have prevented a significant portion of the failures that have occurred,” Baharav-Miara wrote.

“Things need to get back on track and the sooner the better,” she concluded.

Baharav-Miara’s comments came after the government on Sunday added an item to the agenda of its weekly meeting at the last minute — the appointment of an interim chairman of the powerful Second Broadcasting Authority. The government has added other items to the agenda at the last minute in the past few weeks, some controversial. The agenda is usually made public in advance, but it does not always include all the items the government actually discusses.

Fuchs issued a statement in response.

“The government secretary takes seriously the fact that the attorney general has released a top secret letter from the government secretary, who is also secretary of the National Security Cabinet, to the national security adviser, with copies to the military secretary, the prime minister and the attorney general,” Fuchs wrote.

“In complete contrast to the claims of the attorney general, the letter from the government secretary was sent within his authority as secretary of the national security cabinet. It does not constitute a legal opinion and its content has no security implications. It is no coincidence that no security official has commented on the letter,” Fuchs continued.

“The attempt to attribute ‘serious security consequences’ in a public letter published by the Attorney General to a letter that dealt exclusively with issues related to the professional executive power distorts the facts and damages the work of the cabinet and public trust,” Fuchs concluded.

Baharav-Miara’s letter to Netanyahu reflected the prime minister’s criticism of two National Commissions of Inquiry: the first, which investigated the 2021 Meron disaster, whose final findings were released in March, and the commission investigating government purchases of submarines and missile boats from Germany, whose findings warned Netanyahu that the findings could negatively impact him.

Both reports examined work procedures under Netanyahu’s government, with the latter’s warning revealing “profound disruptions in work processes and decision-making mechanisms on a range of sensitive issues, posing risks to national security and harming Israel’s foreign relations and economic interests.”

The Meron Report details neglect, lack of preparation, lack of management, lack of enforcement of building codes under Netanyahu’s administration, and conflicts over responsibilities, authority, and land ownership among politicians, government officials, and law enforcement. The result was dangerous overcrowding and unsafe and illegal conditions at the facility, year after year, during the pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Lag Ba-Omer.

Michael Starr assisted in the preparation of this report.