One must stop and truly understand that the Supreme Court is not the acting elected government of Israel.

The question before Israel’s High Court is bigger than Itamar Ben-Gvir. It goes to the heart of who governs the State of Israel. The citizens, through their elected representatives, or an unelected legal echelon that increasingly sees itself as entitled to decide which ministers are acceptable. The court convened yesterday to hear petitions seeking to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Ben-Gvir as national security minister. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara argues that he has improperly interfered with police independence, including on investigations, protests, appointments, and the promotion of Superintendent Rinat Saban. Netanyahu’s response is the exact opposite, that ordering Ben-Gvir’s dismissal would be an unconstitutional judicial invasion into the prime minister’s authority to form and maintain a government.

That is the first point that has to be stated clearly, this is not just a normal administrative dispute. Even the reporting around the case frames it as a constitutional confrontation over whether judges can effectively dictate cabinet composition. The case is testing the outer line between legitimate ministerial supervision and unlawful political interference in policing, while Netanyahu’s filing calls the requested remedy unconstitutional and beyond the court’s authority. The hearing was restricted to media and preapproved participants, intensifying the sense that the judiciary is stepping into one of the most politically explosive questions in the country.

The democratic problem is obvious. Israelis voted for a right-wing coalition in November 2022, and that coalition openly promised a harder line on internal security, terrorism, governance, and the balance between the elected branches and the legal establishment. Ben-Gvir was not smuggled into office under false pretenses. He came in with a public mandate to press a tougher law-and-order agenda, and Netanyahu appointed him to carry it out.........

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