Moshe Cohen-Eliya
The Israeli government’s decision to dismiss Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar against the warnings of its attorney general arguably marks the most dangerous inflection point yet in Israel’s long-simmering constitutional crisis. On Sunday the Israeli government unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara herself, a first step toward dismissing her. The Supreme Court, which last year struck down a constitutional amendment to overhaul the Israeli judicial system, has now intervened to block Bar’s dismissal—a ruling the government says it intends to defy. So the question is no longer whether Israel has a judicial problem. The question is: Who actually governs the country?
Outside observers, particularly in the West, often describe Israel’s legal crisis as a power grab by a radical right-wing government. The truth is the opposite. For years, unelected officials in Israel’s judiciary, security services, and legal bureaucracy have amassed extraordinary powers to override elected decision-makers. Israel has become the only Western constitutional democracy in which judges have veto power over judicial appointments, the attorney general controls the government’s legal voice, and intelligence chiefs act as constitutional guardians. The result is a crisis of legitimacy—and a growing confrontation between the institutions of popular sovereignty and what can only be described as a deep state.
Nowhere is this confrontation more acute than in the relationship between Israel’s judiciary and its security establishment.
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