Attorney General Opposes Netanyahu-Police Commissioner Meeting

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has objected to a planned meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Police Commissioner Danny Levy ahead of Tuesday's Knesset election. "There is no place for such a meeting," the Attorney General said.

Amit Segal reported the objection. No other account of the statement was available at the time of writing.

The Central Elections Committee, the body responsible for administering the election, said on Sunday that nothing on the face of it prevented the meeting from taking place. The committee, chaired by Justice Noam Sohlberg, stressed that the commissioner decides what information to present and that the prime minister is barred from interfering in police plans for the election.

On Sunday, Netanyahu summoned Levy to a meeting on police preparations for Election Day. Levy had missed a Thursday gathering of the security chiefs. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was set to take part in the meeting with Levy, and no representatives of the Central Elections Committee were scheduled to attend.

Netanyahu said he had brought the security chiefs together because of "dramatic and serious security warnings indicating that terrorist organizations intend to disrupt the elections or influence their course," and described the session as a routine step before a vote.

Likud insisted that the meeting with Levy had nothing to do with election integrity, calling it a follow-up to the earlier briefing with all heads of the security establishment. The party added that Sohlberg was free to send a committee representative.

Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party had asked Baharav-Miara and Sohlberg to cancel the session. Eisenkot said:

"Summoning the police commissioner to a meeting on the eve of elections, in blatant violation of proper procedure and endangering election integrity, is a dangerous intervention that must not be allowed."