National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attended a much-anticipated hearing Wednesday morning in the High Court of Justice on petitions demanding his dismissal over his alleged politicization of police.

The nine-judge panel adjourned after nearly 10 hours of deliberation, without coming to an immediate decision.

The stormy hearing in Jerusalem was the culmination of a months-long effort to oust Ben Gvir. Petitioners laid out the ultranationalist politician’s controversial track record as minister, claiming his years of public statements, heavy-handed interference in police promotions and personal involvement in operational matters have undermined law enforcement’s independence.

Though judges seemed to agree with petitioners’ claims that Ben Gvir illicitly interfered in police operations, they appeared hesitant to take the unprecedented step of ordering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire him and opted to exercise restraint.

Judges instead signaled that they would instruct the government to reach a compromise with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that would rein in the minister, while allowing him to remain in his post.

Shosh Shmueli, representing the attorney general, urged the court to issue an interim order — meant to serve as a stand-in during talks between the three parties — barring Ben Gvir from interfering in police appointments linked to investigations, freedom of expression and the force’s legal counsel.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the government’s controversial legislative campaign to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, vowed ahead of the hearing that the government would defy any decision reached by judges.

The very fact that the judges sat to hear the petitions sparked outrage among Ben Gvir’s right-wing supporters.

Crucial to the minister’s argument is that the High Court lacks any mandate to issue a ruling on the matter, which both he and Netanyahu — also a respondent in the case — characterized as a mere administrative issue.

The hearing was broadcast live, but judges had decided several days prior to bar the public from attending in person for fear it would lead to disruption of courtroom proceedings.

That ban did not extend to lawmakers, though, and several far-right MKs decided to attend the hearing as a demonstration of support for Ben Gvir. Tally Gotliv, May Golan, and Idit Silman from the Likud Party and Limor Son Har Melech from Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit repeatedly shouted down judges, leading Chief Justice Isaac Amit to expel them from the hearing.

Ben Gvir concurs with AG

About an hour before the hearing, Ben Gvir himself arrived at the courthouse to much fanfare, wading through an unruly crowd of several hundred supporters who gathered to protest against his potential dismissal.

Behind a human chain formed by Border Police, protesters sounded blowhorns while waving signs denouncing Israel’s legal system as a “judicial dictatorship.”

“Gali Baharav-Miara says that I am deciding policy and changing the police. She is correct,” Ben Gvir said to loud applause. He spoke to reporters alongside his fellow party members in Otzma Yehudit, a handful of Likud lawmakers and far-right activists.

“I am not a puppet of the State Attorney’s Office. I’m not a potted plant. I am a minister who was chosen in order to govern,” he said. As the politician spoke, his supporters chanted that Amit and........

© The Times of Israel