Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Wednesday evening finally officially initiated the process of impeaching Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

Levin sent a letter to Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, to advance a motion of no confidence against the Attorney General.

Levin stated: “The Attorney General acts as the long arm of the government’s opponents and does not shy away from any means to thwart the will of the voters. Under her leadership, the institution of the Attorney General has become a tyrannical political authority, at times even violent and oppressive. She exploited the political rift in Israel as a tool to create two systems of law – one for supporters of the government and the other for its opponents. In the history of the State of Israel, nothing has contributed more to fanning the flames of strife between the camps than this perverse policy of discrimination, carried out by someone who is supposed to serve as a model of justice and equality.”

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Attorney-General has seized nearly unlimited, unchecked power and exploited it in a crude and overtly political manner under the guise of professionalism and objectivity, distorting the institution of the Attorney General beyond recognition. Her term will be remembered as a stain on this office and its rehabilitation cannot begin until her term ends.”

“It is proposed that the government express a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, given her inappropriate conduct and fundamental and continuous disagreements between the government and the Attorney General, which creates a situation that prevents effective cooperation.”

“While she exults the values of democracy, in truth, she crushed those very principles in whose name she purported to act. She purified whatever abominations she desired and ‘deemed illegal’ the legitimate that was not to her liking.”

Among the reasons Levin listed for the Attorney-General’s ouster are: “The tainting of legal ‘advice’ with political considerations, thwarting government policy, thwarting government legislation, thwarting appointments of public servants, violating fiduciary trust as a representative of the state in courts, and abuse of prosecutorial powers via a policy of selective and political enforcement.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)