Adv. Rotem Bavli Dvir, head of litigation at the Movement for Quality Government in Israel: “The dismissal of seven legal advisors in one fell swoop is intended to get the gatekeepers out of the way to allow ministers to promote their unlawful policies”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel petitioned the Supreme Court this morning, 9 December 2024, demanding the cancellation of the government decision to terminate within three months the tenure of seven legal advisors to various government ministries, among them legal advisor to the finance ministry Asi Messing. The petition claims that the decision was taken contrary to the position of the deputy attorneys general, who determined that there is a legal impediment to taking the decision and that it does not pass any judicial test.
According to the Movement, the government decision undermines the fundamental values of the democratic system of governance, which includes checks and balances even within the executive branch, and severely damages the independence of the legal advisory system and its role as a gatekeeper. According to the petition, the decision was made hastily and in a flawed procedure, ignoring many months of professional staff work. The Movement emphasizes that the decision is motivated by extraneous and improper considerations concerning the wish of government ministers to move the legal advisors, barriers against actions that harm the rule of law, out of their way. In addition, the decision put ministers in a conflict of interest, and in particular the minister of finance who sought to remove Adv. Asi Messing as the legal advisor of the Ministry of Finance because he regarded him as an obstacle to his unlawful policies.
The petition points out that the decision obliges the legal advisors to leave their positions within just 90 days, whether they have reached a financial settlement or not, and asks the court to issue an interim order that will freeze the implementation of the decision until a ruling on the petition is given.
Adv. Rotem Bavli Dvir, head of litigation at the Movement for Quality Government in Israel: “The government decision is a well-planned move aimed at getting the legal advisors, who serve as gatekeepers and block unlawful policies, out of the way. The decision was taken contrary to the position of the deputy attorneys general, weakens the gatekeepers, and harms the system of checks and balances in Israeli democracy. It is clear to everyone that it is designed to turn the legal advisors into rubber stamps of the ministers. We will use all the tools at our disposal to prevent this serious damage to the rule of law and the status of the gatekeepers.”
