Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit submitted a supplementary response to the Supreme Court regarding the petitions over the prime minister’s conflicts of interests related to the justice system. Mandelblit stated that in accordance with the ruling of the Supreme Court, his legal opinion, including on the issue of conflicts of interest, is a binding legal opinion, and Netanyahu is bound by it, as long as he, Mandelblit, has not ruled otherwise.
Mandelblit expressed that he imposed severe restrictions on Netanyahu with regard to issues of law enforcement systems while the Prime Minister remains under indictment.
Mandelblit said that his opinion on the prevention of conflicts of interest with regard to Netanyahu is a legal opinion, which binds all the arms of the executive branch and reflects for them the existing law, similar to his legal opinion on other issues, and is not merely a recommendation.
The attorney general asked the court to determine that the applicability of the restrictions derived from his opinion in relation to a conflict of interest for a given official, does not depend on the goodwill of the official, but is warranted by the attorney general’s interpretation of the law.
According to a report that appeared in the Israeli media, Mandelblit further said that as long as the Prime Minister insists that he does not intend to act under this arrangement, there is no escape from further examination of the petitions, including the issuance of conditional orders against Netanyahu.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Two things.
1. “Attorney General” is a gross mistranslation of Mandelblit’s job title. I don’t care that all the news media do it, and even the Israeli government does it, it is simply wrong. An attorney general is a politician, the minister in charge of the department of justice. Israel’s attorney general is Avi Nissenkorn. Mandelblit’s job title is “legal adviser”. He is a career public servant who serves as the government’s lawyer. Accordingly the closest English equivalent is “solicitor general”, or perhaps simply “legal counsel” (like the USA’s “office of legal counsel”).
2. The idea that the government lawyer’s opinions are binding on the government is an abomination. I mean that term seriously and in its full term. It is a perversion of the entire principle of responsible government. It turns Mandelblit into a dictator. No client is bound by his lawyer; he may be well-advised to take his lawyer’s advice, but he doesn’t have to.
What makes it even worse is that the government is not free to hire its own lawyer; the civil service gives the prime minister a short list of three names, all of whom are career public servants, i.e. committed leftists and agents of the deep state, and he must choose one of them.
This system in Israel must be changed, if necessary by force of guns.