Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the country’s attorney general on Monday that she lacks authority to prevent his government from firing the head of Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet).

The statement came in reply to a letter from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday in which she wrote that he could not fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar “until the factual and legal basis” underlying the dismissal and Netanyahu’s “authority to address the matter at this time” were fully examined.

The clash is the latest in a series of conflicts between Israeli elected officials and bureaucrats since 2023, when Netanyahu led his Likud party to victory in a general election amid an ongoing corruption trial.

“Your attempt to override the government’s mandate is a dangerous denial of the government’s express authority,” Netanyahu wrote to Baharav-Miara.

Netanyahu had campaigned in the previous elections on plans to reform Israel’s judiciary and bureaucracy.

In his letter to Baharav-Miara, Netanyahu also addressed her claim in her letter Sunday that he could not fire Bar because of “the extraordinary sensitivity of the issue, its unprecedented nature, the concern that the process may be tainted by illegality and conflict of interest.”

This may have been a reference to Israeli media reports in the past month that some of Netanyahu’s aides had ties to Qatar. The Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent to the American FBI, announced it would investigate these claims.

“Your insinuations about suspicion of ‘illegality and conflict of interest’ are a complete reversal of justice,” wrote Netanyahu. “Contrary to what you said, the intention to terminate the term of the Shin Bet chief did not come out of the investigation. On the contrary, the ‘investigation’ was born after the possibility of terminating his term was raised and published in the media.”

The cabinet was scheduled to discuss Bar’s dismissal on Wednesday, but Netanyahu was working to have the meeting rescheduled and moved up to Tuesday, according to Israel Hayom. Netanyahu said earlier this week that he was seeking to dismiss Bar due to “a continued distrust” between the two that “has grown over time.”

Several anti-government movements were organizing mass protests for Wednesday against Bar’s dismissal.

Netanyahu’s critics say his plan to dismiss Bar is a danger to Israel’s democracy. They also condemn his government’s plan to fire Baharav-Miara, despite her many refusals to represent the government in court, which is part of her office’s tasks. A date has not yet been set for a cabinet discussion on Baharav-Miara’s dismissal.

Image - Chaim Goldberg/Flash90