Analysis-Calls for minister's firing could tip Israel into constitutional crisis

JERUSALEM - A petition by a group of non-governmental organizations for the Supreme Court to order the dismissal of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has caused a rift in Benjamin Netanyahu's government and could plunge Israel into a constitutional crisis.

In a letter to Netanyahu last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asked the prime minister to consider firing the minister, citing evidence that he allegedly interfered directly in police operations and politicized promotions within the force, threatening its status outside politics.

Baharav-Miara's appeal to the prime minister came before the attorney general must give her opinion to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks on whether it should accept and review the NGOs' petition, filed in September.

In her letter, made public by her office, Baharav-Miara backed the NGOs contentions that the minister had personally intervened in the way police chiefs responded to anti-government protests.

She also cited a letter from former Israel Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who left office in July, saying that Ben Gvir had instructed senior police officers to disregard cabinet orders to protect humanitarian aid convoys heading to Gaza.

Her letter drew a stinging response from the minister who called publicly for the attorney general to be fired, saying that her request was politically motivated. He has denied any wrongdoing.

When he entered Netanyahu's coalition at the end of 2022, Ben-Gvir was given an expanded portfolio, including responsibility for Border Police in the occupied West Bank, despite having been convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing an extremist nationalist religious group, Kach, designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States.

A "police law" passed by the Knesset that month - one of Ben Gvir's conditions for entering the coalition – expanded the powers of the security minister over the police, including setting general policy as well as its operational priorities and guidelines.

Ben Gvir said the law would strengthen the police force and its ability to combat crime, and argued that in all democratic countries the police reported to an elected minister. Critics have argued that the amendments gave Ben Gvir overarching powers over operations and made him the "ultimate police chief."

Four former police commanders and two legal experts told Reuters that changes Ben Gvir has made to the structure and culture of Israel's police force have led to its politicization.

"Minister Ben Gvir is trying, with his authority, to approve appointments or to be involved in promotions and advancements, in order to advance his own political interests," said Amonon Alkalai, a former police sergeant who resigned in 2021.

Neither the Israel Police nor Ben Gvir's office responded to requests for comment on the minister's role in police appointments or influence over operations.

Netanyahu - who faces corruption charges - has resisted past calls to dismiss Ben-Gvir. If the minister's far-right, nationalist Otzma Yehudit party were to withdraw from the governing coalition, Netanyahu would only have a slim majority. Adding to his legal difficulties, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest on Thursday for alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu maintains his innocence on all counts.

Should the Supreme Court order the prime minister to dismiss his minister and he refuses, Israel could be plunged into constitutional crisis, with the government in defiance of the judiciary, some legal experts say.

"We don't know what would happen in that situation," said Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank. He added that could put Israel "in a very dangerous situation."

Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment.

HARD LINE ON PROTESTS

Tel Aviv District Police Commander Ami Eshed resigned last year citing political reasons, after publicly stating he would not use force against anti-government protestors despite requests from Ben Gvir to do so. In a televised statement, Eshed said "the ministerial echelon" had blatantly interfered in professional decision making.

Ben Gvir's office did not respond publicly to Eshed's comments. Israel's high court has ordered Ben-Gvir to stop instructing the police how to use force in response to protests last year and again in January.

The four former officers who spoke to Reuters said a sign of the change in policing under Ben Gvir was when police did not make arrests when right-wing Israeli protesters broke into two military compounds in July after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse of a Palestinian inmate.

In contrast, police have clamped down on anti-government demonstrations. Israel Yediot newspaper in June reported that at one evening of protests, a record 110 arrests were made, out of which only one individual was charged.

In response to public criticism of the high numbers of arrests, police have said some protestors at demonstrations behave violently including attacking law enforcement and lighting fires.

The police did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the handling of protests.

TEMPLE MOUNT

Senior appointments in recent months have transformed the police's leadership. After the government approved in August his choice for national police commissioner Daniel Levy, Ben Gvir said the new chief would follow "a Zionist and Jewish agenda" and lead the police "according to the policy I have laid out for him."

Just over 20% of Israel's population is Arab and this community suffers much higher rates of violent crime. Neither Ben-Gvir nor Levy attended a meeting convened by Netanyahu in September to tackle rising crime rates in the Arab-Israeli community.

A new Jerusalem district chief appointed under Ben-Gvir, Amir Arzani, has eased restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa mosque, built on a site holy to Jews who know it as Temple Mount and one of the most sensitive places in the Middle East.

One former senior commander who oversaw law enforcement in Jerusalem told Reuters that, in the past, when ministers tried to ascend to the Temple Mount to conduct Jewish prayer, senior officers would seek permission from the justice ministry to arrest them on the basis that it posed a threat to national security.

Ben Gvir has ascended to the Temple Mount several times since his tenure began without being stopped by police.

The Israel Police said in a statement, in response to Reuters' questions about the guidelines, that Knesset members could request access to Temple Mount via the Knesset Guard, and approval depended on a security assessment conducted close to the planned visit.

One former commander, who served during Ben Gvir's tenure and asked not to be identified due the sensitive nature of his former position, said Ben Gvir was not prevented from ascending to the Temple Mount because it was deemed to pose no credible threat.

LONG-LASTING DAMAGE

Eugene Kontorovich, head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative think tank based in Jerusalem, said an order from the Supreme Court for the prime minister to dismiss the minister would overstep judicial authority.

"If a prime minister can't choose which ministers to hire and fire, he's not the prime minister, he's just a puppet of the courts," Kontorovich said. He said the attorney general had not identified any specific laws that Ben-Gvir had violated.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a campaign group that aims to promote democratic standards, has appealed the 2022 police law before the Supreme Court.

Ory Hess, a lawyer at the Movement, said the law gave Ben Gvir dangerous authority to intervene in Israeli politics because he could use the police to stifle anti-government sentiment.

Yoav Segalovitz, a member of Israel's Knesset in the opposition Yesh Atid party and a former law enforcement officer who headed the police's investigations and intelligence division, said Ben Gvir's changes may do irreversible damage that would take years to correct.

"A political person should never have power over how the police is used because the police is not the military: the police deal with the citizens; the police deal with the most sensitive issues," Segalovitz said.

(Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Daniel Flynn)