Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who appointed Gali Baharav-Miara as Attorney General during his term as Justice Minister in the previous government, explained on Wednesday evening why he supports her ouster.

“Removing the Attorney General from her position is an exceptional step,” Sa’ar began. “A step that hasn’t been taken since the 1980s.”

“But the Attorney General’s performance is also highly exceptional. She has become a full-fledged political player, systematically working against the government with a transparent goal of overthrowing it. Anyone who wants to overthrow the government supports her, and vice versa. This is a place that is untenable for an Attorney General.”

“For some time, she has not maintained proper working relations with the government and the ministers. Everything is a ‘legal impediment.'”

“I started working in the Attorney General’s office over 30 years ago. The institution of the Attorney General is dear to my heart. This institution is being destroyed these days and is becoming an institution that receives trust from only half the nation according to political affiliation.”

Sa’ar continued by saying that Baharav-Miara acted appropriately during her first year of office, fulfilling her promise to provide unbiased legal advice.

“Today, she is in the furthest place from there,” he continued, citing two examples of her decision that were so obviously biased that they were overturned by the Supreme Court.

“Any honest person can separate their opinion of the government (negative or positive) and understanding what exactly is happening here,” Sa’ar asserted. “The one who changed her approach by 180 degrees is the Attorney General. There is no country in the world where an Attorney-General acts consistently, systematically, and unrestrainedly against the government she is supposed to advise. All this – while stretching the boundaries of the role itself to impossible places.”

“Continuing to impose her on the government is a serious governance failure that severely impairs the functioning of the executive branch. I have seen this time and time again – and up close – in the last six months.”

“She undoubtedly must end her position. If all the facts that I know today were known to me then – I would not have suggested her candidacy. This is, of course, a case of ‘hindsight is 20/20.’ It is better to learn from mistakes than to dig one’s heels in them.”

“Baharav-Miara left the Justice Minister no choice but to take the step he announced tonight, and it was she, through her behavior, that convinced the Minister that this step was necessary.”

Sa’ar also stressed the need for reforming the position of Attorney-General by splitting it into two positions. Israel is the only country in the world in which the same person serves as a legal advisor to the government and heads the State Prosecutor’s Office, maintaining power to initiate criminal proceedings against government members and the Knesset.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)