JERUSALEM - A petition by a group of non-governmental organisations for the Supreme Court to order the dismissal of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has caused a rift in Benjamin Netanyahu's government and could plunge Israel into a constitutional crisis.

In a letter to Netanyahu last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asked the prime minister to consider firing the minister, citing evidence that he allegedly interfered directly in police operations and politicised promotions within the force, threatening its status outside politics.

Baharav-Miara's appeal to the prime minister came before the attorney general must give her opinion to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks on whether it should accept and review the NGOs' petition, filed in September.

In her letter, made public by her office, Baharav-Miara backed the NGOs contentions that the minister had personally intervened in the way police chiefs responded to anti-government protests.

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