AG reaches compromise with Ben Gvir on national security minister’s powers
Far-right leader agrees to curb his interference in police promotions and operational matters, in bid to fend off legal challenges to his tenure
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir agreed Tuesday to sweeping limitations on his power, in a compromise struck with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in a bid to fend off legal challenges to his tenure.
The compromise was reached as a precondition set by Baharav-Miara before she would agree to defend him in court against legal petitions demanding his dismissal. The two entered talks in early April to curb Ben Gvir’s interference in operational police matters.
According to the principles laid out in the three-page compromise, Ben Gvir is formally barred from dealing with anti-government protests, directly or indirectly.
Under the agreement, Ben Gvir will be prevented from addressing probes into police conduct and determining law enforcement’s investigations, according to a document shared Tuesday by a Justice Ministry spokesperson.
The compromise also limits Ben Gvir’s interference in police appointments, forbidding the minister from interviewing officers for promotion without the prior recommendation of the police chief and a panel of senior cops.
It additionally sets limits on Ben Gvir’s interactions with more junior policemen, preventing him holding interviews regarding the promotion of officers with the superintendent rank.
He will be permitted to hold interviews for the promotion of higher-ranking police, namely those with the ranks chief superintendent and commander, but only while in the presence of a senior officer.
Petitioners in an ongoing legal battle accused Ben Gvir, who returned to head the National Security Ministry upon rejoining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in March, of politicizing the police by selectively promoting officers that push his far-right agenda.
The government reappointed the politician to his post, flouting Baharav-Miara’s initial counsel that his return to the ministry was “not possible” in light of the legal challenges to his tenure.
She eased her position in early April when she agreed to enter into a “practical dialogue” with representatives of Ben Gvir to set limits on the minister’s powers, asking the court to hold off on hearing the petitions against his reappointment. Judges granted her request.
Ben Gvir frequently hits out against Baharav-Miara with the allegation that she unfairly targets him and his political allies.
Nevertheless, the minister agreed to compromise on potential limits to his power out of fear that the court may disqualify him from serving as national security minister, the Haaretz daily reported Sunday.
According to the outlet, Baharav-Miara’s backpedaling irked some officials in the Justice Ministry, who believed that Ben Gvir’s reappointment should be opposed unconditionally given his blatant intervention in operational police matters in the past.
Ben Gvir has been accused by Baharav-Miara and legal experts of using his authority in a manner that constitutes “illegitimate intervention” in the force.
The attorney general urged Netanyahu in November to rethink the minister’s tenure, citing instances of him publicly dressing down senior cops for their handling of anti-government protests and appearing at police operations rooms during demonstrations to ensure officers carry out his directives.
Ben Gvir drew the attorney general’s ire last September when he attempted to promote indicted officer Meir Suissa, who was accused of reckless and negligent behavior after throwing a stun grenade into a crowd of protesters, hospitalizing a woman with a direct hit to her face.
The attorney general called his the promotion — made without the police chief’s recommendation — illegal. The Jerusalem District Court froze Suissa’s promotion in September, which Ben Gvir then appealed.
Though the police are expected to be a professional, nonpolitical organization, the relationship between the national security minister — a political appointee — and the police commissioner is largely informal, meaning there are very few checks on the minister’s power.
This has granted Ben Gvir vast discretion in pushing the limits of the force, using the possibility of a promotion as a carrot-and-stick to influence cops’ decision-making, according to legal experts.
“Ben Gvir exploits the fact the laws and procedures regarding [police] appointments are ‘soft’ in a way, that you can enter through the cracks and break up the process,” said Yael Litmanovitz, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute.
But despite falling under Ben Gvir’s purview, police are “not a department in a government ministry,” she added — they are expected to maintain their own operational independence.
“The system before [Ben Gvir] assumed a benevolence” on the part of the minister, she explained. “If the minister interfered, he would be doing it to promote professionalism — to stop nepotism, to stop unprofessional practices.”
The High Court pushed back against Ben Gvir’s efforts to further subordinate the force earlier this year, when it struck down an amendment made to the Police Ordinance law allowing the far-right minister to intervene in police investigations policy.
In the majority opinion, former acting Supreme Court president Uzi Vogelman cited “concern of the encroachment of political considerations” into police investigations as judges’ reasoning to annul the amendment.
The Times of Israel Community.