In a rebuke to the government, the High Court of Justice refused on Monday to hold oral arguments over the government’s decision to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, due to the government’s failure to send a legal representative to the hearing.

“We find that there is no point in holding oral arguments in front of what is practically an open goal,” Supreme Court President Isaac Amit told the lawyers for the petitioners and members of the public who were present in court for the hearing.

Amit said that the seven-justice panel will now formulate its ruling based on the written materials submitted to it by the petitioners and by the government, which filed a much-delayed response to the petitions in mid-November.

This is the second time the court has advanced the case without a hearing due to the government’s refusal to participate in the proceedings.

On September 1, the court unanimously recommended that the government cancel its August 4 decision to fire Baharav-Miara and abolish the new method for firing an attorney general that it had created in June.
It did so after the government decided not to submit a response to the petitions and had refused to appoint a lawyer to represent it in court at that time too.

That decision was seen as a strong indication that the High Court had taken a dim view of the government’s process for removing Baharav-Miara from office, and would likely rule her dismissal unlawful if the government did not back down from it.

In the meantime, the government is advancing legislation to split the position of the attorney general into three roles, gutting its remaining powers.

The law is likely to take........

© The Times of Israel