Heroine or Public Enemy? The Israeli Blocking Much of Netanyahu’s Agenda.
Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s first female attorney general, has stopped many of the government’s efforts to remove constraints on its power.
By David M. Halbfinger and Natan Odenheimer
Her admirers see her as a solitary heroine, standing in the way of Israel’s most right-wing and religious government as it pushes the country toward authoritarianism. Her detractors see her as a public enemy, blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to supercharge majority rule and rein in a power-mad, left-leaning judiciary.
What no one disputes is that Gali Baharav-Miara, 67, the first woman to serve as the attorney general of Israel, has almost single-handedly defeated many of the government’s efforts to undercut the Supreme Court, crack down on the news media and free itself of some of the biggest checks on its own power...
In a speech in May, she listed the damage already done to Israeli democracy: “Turning the law enforcement system into a tool for preserving government power and suppressing opponents of the regime. Deterrence of watchdogs, free media and civil society organizations. The potential to undermine the ability to hold fair elections.”
“The changes are happening quickly,” she continued, “but repairing the damage will not be quick. It will be difficult to turn back the clock.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-gali-baharav-miara-attorney-general.html