Amid new controversy, intended police chief slams critics, vows to fight on

With his path to the post looking increasingly complicated and uncertain, the man selected to be Israel’s next police chief lashed out against top officers in the force, accusing them of playing politics with information about an investigation into a company he heads.

Ex-IDF brig.-gen. Gal Hirsch, who was nominated earlier this week to head the Israel Police, went on air Saturday after Channel 2 reported that the FBI and Israel Police had been conducting a two-year undercover corruption investigation into businesses linked to Hirsch.

Hirsch said the information leaked to the press after his appointment was a deliberate attempt by officers who may soon be his subordinates to try and thwart his appointment.

“There are people in the police holding on to sensitive materials and choosing to stash them away for the opportune moment, and then use them politically, as happened to me,” Hirsch said, without naming names.

But he said he would not give up on the appointment despite opposition from ex-top cops and bereaved families, and despite the news of the investigation. “I intend to go for this all the way, not to flinch,” he said in a Channel 2 interview.

The investigation reportedly involves his Defensive Shield Holdings company’s dealings with the Georgian government, and a British court’s request for information in a corruption case involving a former Georgian minister.

Defensive Shield Holdings, of which Hirsch is the CEO, is an “internationally recognized provider of strategic, operational and tactical solutions for the defense, security, and homeland security sectors around the world,” according to its website.

The UK court’s request was shown by the Israel Police’s Investigative Department chief Menny Yitzhaki to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan Thursday, and was subsequently reported on in the media. Erdan named Hirsch to the top police job on Tuesday, and was apparently unaware of the investigation, to which Hirsch has not been tied directly.

The company had contracts with the Georgian government, mainly through Davit Kezerashvili, a Georgian Jew who lived in Israel and later became a Georgian politician, TV reports said Saturday. Kezerashvili served as the country’s defense minister from 2006 and 2008, when he was dismissed in a government reshuffle. In 2013 the Georgian government accused him of corruption. In a separate indictment he was accused of appropriating state funds.

Kezerashvili was detained in France in October 2013 pending extradition, but a French court refused to return him to Georgia.

Defensive Shield Holdings’ operations in Georgia were coordinated by Kezerashvili. The former defense minister was accused, among other allegations, of a scheme in which he paid state money to the firm without it actually having undertaken any projects.

According to Channel 2, Kezerashvili is currently in Israel and is still wanted in Georgia.

Separately, Channel 2 reported that the FBI is conducting several probes into allegations of corruption involving other companies with which Defensive Shield has conducted business. The company has also had dealings in Kazakhstan, Channel 2 reported.

The Walla news website, meanwhile, published on Saturday a copy of a letter by the senior R&D officer at RAFAEL, another Israeli defense company, in which the latter attests that Defensive Shield received the highest security clearance from the Defense Ministry.

The letter, dated January 2015, was published as proof that Hirsch’s company passed the stringent checks required by the government before it signs contracts on sensitive defense projects.

Hirsch’s lawyer, Dror Brutfeld, on Saturday evening accused the media of parroting opponents of the nomination, describing a “virtual reality that paints a picture as if something is wrong,” and insisted that Hirsch is beyond reproach. Brutfeld said he was confident Hirsch’s appointment would be confirmed, and that his client’s behavior on the matters under investigation had been above and beyond what was requested of him.

Israel’s Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein was reported Friday to be looking into new information he received regarding companies linked to Hirsch. Weinstein’s office said he recently received “various information pertaining to the activities of civilian companies, whose activities were connected to Gal Hirsch in the years following his departure from the IDF.” Furthermore, a statement from Weinstein said, “A team comprising members of the Justice Ministry will investigate the issue and compile their findings as soon as possible, and present them to (me) in order to formulate a legal position on the matter.”

A once-promising senior officer in the IDF, Hirsch was forced out of active duty in the wake of the 2006 war, amid criticism over his failure to prevent the kidnapping and killing of two soldiers that led to the conflict.

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon welcomed Hirsch’s nomination by Erdan, saying that the 51-year-old former warrior had the skills to take Israel’s scandal-struck police force in a new direction.

But senior members of the police responded furiously to the nomination, calling it a “spit in the face.” Some families of IDF soldiers who fell in the 2006 war also protested the appointment, holding a demonstration outside Erdan’s home. They called off the protest Friday after meeting with Erdan, saying the minister had pledged to reevaluate the appointment.

Erdan had defended Hirsch, saying he was “surprised” by the intense criticism. “I accept the criticism, and I also expected it,” said Erdan. “But I am surprised at the intensity of it, and the style.”

Hirsch’s nomination will now be presented for approval to the Advisory Committee on Senior Appointments, headed by retired judge Yaakov Turkel. In a letter to the committee this week, retired justice Eliyahu Winograd, who led the investigation into the Second Lebanon War, recommended that Hirsch’s nomination be approved, calling him “a most worthy candidate,” Channel 2 said.

The Turkel panel had planned to meet on the appointment in the next few days, but may now postpone its deliberations, TV reports said Saturday.