Netanyahu leads Israel into constitutional crisis days after shattering ceasefire

The threat of annexation was followed in Gaza at the weekend by the reality of more lethal bombardment.

Yesterday Hamas confirmed the death of Ismail Barhoum, a senior member of its political wing, after he was targeted in a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis where he was receiving treatment.

Israel’s defence minister threatened on Friday to begin annexing parts of the Gaza Strip if Hamas did not release its remaining hostages.

“The more Hamas continues its refusal, the more territory it will lose,” Israel Katz stated, warning that the Israeli military could also begin implementing what he called President Trump's “voluntary transfer plan for the residents of Gaza”. Both moves would violate international law.

On Tuesday, Israel shattered a two-month ceasefire in Gaza, launching airstrikes that have killed over 590 Palestinians and sending in ground forces to recapture territory in the enclave. Thousands of Palestinians are once again fleeing their homes in response to the advance of Israeli troops and the military’s evacuation orders. Hamas has fired a handful of rockets into Israel in retaliation.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest the government’s attempts to fire the attorney general and the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, which is overseeing investigations into claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides have been receiving money from Qatar during the war. If so, that could amount to treason under Israeli law.

Israel’s former Supreme Court president has warned that the country is “closer than ever to a civil war,” and former heads of Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israeli Police have said Netanyahu is putting Israel in “existential danger”.

Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to approve the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar on Thursday. The Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction against his dismissal but the government is threatening to move ahead regardless. If so it would be the first time a Shin Bet chief has been fired in the country’s history.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has said Bar’s dismissal is illegal – but her future also hangs in the balance. The cabinet is scheduled to vote on Sunday on whether to sack her. In the meantime every living former Israeli attorney general and deputy has signed an open letter against her potential dismissal.

On Friday, 200 of Israel’s top business leaders said they would “bring the Israeli economy to a complete halt” if the government defies the court’s freeze on firing Bar. The country’s main labor union has threatened a nationwide strike and the head of Israel’s Bar Association has said the legal sector will also strike if the government ignores the ruling.

A forum of Israel’s largest technology companies and venture capital funds has warned that Netanyahu’s steamrolling of the judiciary will “turn the State of Israel into a third world country that foreign investors will flee from”.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that Netanyahu is “declaring war on the rule of law and turning Israel into a dictatorship”.

Photo credit: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images