A-G rejects Ben-Gvir’s request for self-representation during court proceedings

In response, the attorney-general said that it was not possible to examine his request for self-representation against all petitions filed against him or his office.

By ELIAV BREUER, JERUSALEM POST STAFF

LEFT: Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara RIGHT: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir

Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara responded on Monday morning to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir‘s call to be able to represent himself during court proceedings, after he said on Sunday that he could not trust Baharav-Miara to represent him fairly.

In response, the attorney-general said that it was not possible to examine his request for self-representation against all petitions filed against him or his office as he did not name one specific instance in which he wants to represent himself, and rather just made a general request.

“As is known, the attorney-general’s roles are to assist the government in advancing its agenda and represent it within the limits of the law, and we are making every effort to do this to the best of our abilities. When disagreements arise, dialogue is held with the ministers in order to solve the disagreement while attempting to arrive at an acceptable position,” Baharav-Miara wrote.

“In addition, the attorney-general is the legally authorized interpreter of the law for the government, and its opinion is binding and reflects the existing law, unless the court decides otherwise. Separate representation is allowed in unusual cases, and is examined individually according to the specific circumstances and the reasons for the request,” she wrote, adding that since Ben-Gvir’s request did not specify a specific court proceeding, she could not address it.

A-G calls Ben-Gvir to meet with her

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir seen at the entrance to the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, March 9, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)<
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Baharav-Miara also reiterated her call for Ben-Gvir to meet with her and for him to file his response to claims filed in high court petitions regarding his conduct at protest events, as well as against the constitutionality of his proposed amendments to Israel’s Police Law, which includes a clause that makes the police commissioner subordinate to the national security minister, but does not include a balancing clause that makes him first and foremost subordinate to the law.

In response, Ben-Gvir said: “I don’t trust you, your considerations and your decisions, and it’s time for me to stop hearing about letters you send me through the media.”

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said in response to Ben-Gvir, “If the TikTok and pita minister would fight terrorists and criminals as much as he fights the attorney-general, our situation would be better.”

Ben-Gvir on Sunday penned a letter attacking the attorney-general over her decision to freeze the removal of Tel Aviv district police commander Ami Eshed, which the minister and Israel Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai announced on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time you made decisions in matters regarding me and my office without [first] speaking to me. This is what you did in the Police Law (you published your opposition to the law proposal without speaking to us first), and that is how you acted on many other ‘Otzma Yehudit’ laws, and on issues connected to decision-making in the National Security Ministry,” Ben-Gvir wrote in the letter.

“Under these circumstances, I do not trust you to represent me loyally in the different appeals,” he added, and therefore from a standpoint of “the law, integrity, and justice,” the minister wished to represent himself or employ private representation in any appeals on the matter.

Thus, “I will not need to receive representation from an attorney-general whose positions are opposed to mine, categorically, always, and always without speaking to me,” he wrote.