In the army, they were surprised to find that Amir Ohana presented the letter of the Chief of Staff as a recommendation to the appointed Attorney General

• Orly Ben Ari // Photo: Yossi Zeliger

The appointment of Orly Ben Ari Ginzberg as Deputy Attorney General continues to stir up a storm: The IDF was surprised on Tuesday to find that the name of the Chief of Staff, Gen. Tamir Heiman, was also linked to the senior appointment. Hyman's name was linked to the affair following a letter of recommendation written by Maj. Gen. Ben Ari, which Justice Minister Amir Ohana presented when announcing her appointment.

Mendelblit: "Do not deviate from my recommendation as to the Deputy State Attorney" // Photo: Shmuel Buchris

The IDF explained that this was a letter written several years ago, when Heyman was the commander of IDF colleges. They also added that the wording of the letter is generic, and the military does not intend to intervene in appointing the senior position in the State Attorney's Office.

Forwarded a generic letter. Chief of Staff Tamir Heyman // Photo: Joshua Yosef

At the same time, Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit announced that there was a legal impediment to Ben Ari's appointment. However, Mandelblit has no capacity to cancel the appointment, and in fact this statement merely means that in the event a petition is filed against the appointment, he will not defend it on behalf of the state, and he may even join the petitioners.

Recall this morning, Minister Ohana announced his intention to appoint Ben Ari to the post of Deputy State Attorney after the term of Attorney General Shi Nitzan ended. Because this is a transitional government, Ohana's ability to appoint a permanent appointee is not.

More on:

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• Civil Service Commissioner: "Appointment of Ben Ari to the State Attorney's Office may undermine the Attorney General's Office"

• Ohana v. Shai Nitzan: "committed a bribe"

• Shai Nitzan leaves a lawyer in trauma

Later in the post, praise was given to those with various positions in the legal system for the elected candidate, including outgoing State Attorney Shai Nitzan. Among those accolades also appeared Hyman's letter.

Until Ohana's announcement, Ben Ari served as deputy to the Central District Attorney's office, and she has served as the Attorney General for the past 28 years. During his announcement of the appointment, Ohana wrote about Ben Ari: "Orly has served for 28 years in the Public Prosecutor's Office. She has extensive experience in the criminal and security fields, graduates from the National Security College, holds a Master's degree in Political Science (National Security), and bachelor's and master's degrees. She has volunteered as head of the National Bar Association's Disciplinary Tribunal and for years served as the head of the State Attorney's Security Forum. I have no doubt that Orly will work to preserve everything worth preserving and contribute to strengthening public confidence in this all-important system. "

She began her civil service duties in 1989 as an intern in the Central District Attorney's Office in civil and criminal matters. After that, she continued her internship with retired Hadassah Ben-now Judge in Tel Aviv District Court. After two years, she worked for about a year in the law firm Hannah Baruchi dealing with white-collar crimes. Ben Ari returned to the Prosecutor's Office in 1992 and served in a variety of positions, including: Head of the State Attorney's Security Forum, Head of Integrated Economic Enforcement, in charge of the Dead Offenses Division in a lowland area, responsible for the area of ​​parole committees and inmate petitions and a civil-criminal forum member.

For her last position as deputy to the Central District Attorney, she entered office in 2012. From that year, she served as the Minister of Justice's representative on the Tel Aviv District Planning and Construction Committee, and since 2014 has been the State Attorney's Representative for the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee hearings. However, and despite its variety of functions, it is not customary to appoint a state attorney with such experience, and the Central District Attorney's office made the decision with mixed feelings. The Deputy District Attorney will now be responsible for the county attorney who worked under it. This is a special situation, and it is not sure that it is smart from an organizational point of view, "said a prosecutor's office." Ben Ari is an excellent attorney, but lacks the district-level management. "

Another prominent opponent of the nomination is Civil Service Commissioner, former Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, who wrote in a letter to Ohana: "From examining Attorney Ben-Ari Ginzberg's personal data, she is in the threshold for the position. However, it is not one of the top echelons of the organizational hierarchy, which may undermine the proper functioning of the prosecutor's office. "

Hershkowitz added in his letter: "This time, too, I would emphasize that this position is that this role should be assigned to a senior civil servant at the highest level in the agreed attorney general's office."