With war raging in the Middle East, we want to bring you as many trusted voices on the news as we can. One such voice is the Israeli journalist Amit Segal. He writes a daily newsletter, It’s Noon in Israel, which we’re pleased to publish in The Free Press.
It’s Wednesday, April 15, and Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, faces the High Court today, with his political survival on the line. But should Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara succeed in ousting him, she may find it a Pyrrhic victory.
But first, some context.
Israel’s attorney general is seeking the national security minister’s removal by invoking the “Deri Doctrine.” In the 1990s, the High Court compelled Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to dismiss Shas leader Aryeh Deri from his cabinet following a criminal indictment. The doctrine mandates that a prime minister is legally obligated to fire a minister if they are charged with offenses involving “moral turpitude.” The underlying rationale is that the public’s confidence in the government’s integrity is so fundamental to democracy that it must override a prime minister’s executive discretion to maintain his cabinet.
So, has Ben-Gvir been indicted? Not exactly.
