AG warns Netanyahu: Cabinet decisions may endanger national security

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara issued a sharply worded letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening, warning him against unprofessional work processes and decision-making procedures in the security cabinet that violated government protocol and possibly endangered national security.

The decision in question was one to supply portable bomb shelters to Israelis who live in illegal outposts in the West Bank. According to the A-G’s letter, the issue first came up in a security cabinet meeting on October 2, but no decisions were made. Then, on October 10, the issue came up for a vote and was approved without the mandatory steps – legal-wise, budgetary-wise, and security-wise – being taken.

Baharav-Miara accused Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs of intentionally leaving the matter off of the October 10 meeting’s agenda, to then bring it up at the end of the meeting and approve it without proper procedure. The A-G pointed out that the decision was not a political one but a security one, and that the fact that it came to a vote in the security cabinet and not in the government plenum was questionable in and of itself.

'Essential guarantees'

“The rules are not a procedural nuisance, but essential guarantees for the cabinet’s proper activity and decision-making for the public good,” Baharav-Miara wrote.“The cabinet is not a safe haven to make decisions without proper procedure or to circumvent the work procedures laid out in the government protocol. The responsibility to ensure that such improper conduct does not repeat itself is the prime minister’s, hence this letter,” she concluded.

The letter reflected a similar one regarding the government plenum’s work processes from earlier this year, and the A-G argued in the recent memo that the “disruptions” in the work of the government plenum were “trickling down” into the security cabinet.

In its response, the Prime Minister’s Office said that the matter had been discussed amongst the relevant bodies, and therefore, the decision on the matter of the portable shelters was made properly. It also said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had directed the relevant security bodies after the October 2 meeting to conduct the necessary staff work and that this had been carried out.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused the attorney-general of “opposing” the placing of the shelters at the outposts, writing that “we will continue to repair, regulate, and do sovereignty de facto while the Attorney General’s Office will continue to disturb.”