Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right figure, denounced on Monday the arrest of a senior official in the prison administration and two other police officers.
“It’s a coup d’état […] a political decision,” criticized Ben Gvir in a televised statement, after the announcement by several Israeli media of the arrest of these three men, presented as close to the minister and suspected of corruption and breach of trust. The police have made no comment on this case.
These arrests are an “attempt to bring down me, the government and Prime Minister” Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gvir fumed. “The decision to investigate police officers and a senior prison service official who implement my policy clearly and completely […] is a political decision, with personal motives,” he added.
The previous week, the minister had given his “total” support to four people working in his office who, according to the Israeli press, were interviewed by the police as part of an investigation into weapons permits issued without respect for criteria imposed by law. In his diatribe, Ben Gvir directly attacked the state attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, also the government's legal advisor.
Appointed in 2022 to this position, Gali Baharav-Miara has repeatedly attracted the wrath of certain ministers in the current government. “In order for the right-wing government to function, without the legal advisor stopping it, we must stop this crazy campaign and its legal coup,” Ben Gvir said.
In March 2023, Gali Baharav-Miara called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order, deeming one of his public interventions on the judicial system reform project which was then dividing the country “illegal”, given his ongoing trials. for corruption.
This year, she also called the government to order on the politically ultra-sensitive issue of the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews studying in of chivot (Talmudic schools), forcing the Executive to issue calls to the flag for several thousand of them in the absence of a valid law allowing the extension of the exemption from which they benefit. Itamar Ben Gvir called on Benjamin Netanyahu to examine with the cabinet at the next Council of Ministers (Sunday) the means to end the mandate of Gali Baharav-Miara.
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