Amid quarrel with Ben Gvir, PMO says prisons chief agrees to end her term
Katy Perry to forgo extension, wrap up tenure this month following ongoing tensions with far-right national security minister
The Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday that Israel Prison Service (IPS) Chief Commissioner Katy Perry had “expressed willingness” to end her tenure after three years on the job, amid repeated clashes with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prison service and who had refused to extend Perry’s tenure.
Ben Gvir and Perry have been engaged in a bitter quarrel over the position, with the far-right minister sending a long missive to Perry last month telling her he lacked confidence in her leadership.
In response, Perry slammed Ben Gvir’s decision, describing it as “an unsurprising decision by an irresponsible minister,” and rejected his claims against her as “unfounded and baseless.”
Perry’s tenure ends this month and she announced back in July that she would not seek an extension to her time in office. But in late December, she informed Ben Gvir that she wished to remain as head of the service, citing the ongoing war and security instability as the reason for reversing her decision.
The spat caused some coalition tensions, with the National Unity party charging that Ben Gvir’s decision violated the terms of its coalition agreement in the emergency government, whereby senior state officials would not be replaced.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervened in the matter, appealing to both Perry and Ben Gvir to come to an agreement “on the continuation of command continuity and the readiness of the prison service during wartime,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“In light of the many challenges facing the organization, the prime minister asked to act to preserve the organization… [in] the national interest of the country,” the statement read, adding that Perry has “expressed her willingness to end her tenure.”
Netanyahu’s office said he’d thanked Perry for her “36 years of service, in which she led many changes in the organization.”
Perry said in a statement to Channel 12 that the announcement ending her tenure was made with her consent. She said she had initially proposed to stay on in light of the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, but that “it didn’t help in the end.”
In his lengthy letter to Perry late last year, Ben Gvir detailed a list of what he said had been her failures as head of the IPS, and said she had refused to implement his policies and even acted to thwart them during his time as minister.
“As you know, over the past year gaps and disagreements have emerged between us to the point of complete mistrust, something that cannot be reconciled and which is harming the work [of the IPS],” Ben Gvir wrote to Perry.
“You have refrained from implementing my policies, and more than once acted against them,” he continued.
Ben Gvir berated Perry for several incidents during her tenure, first and foremost for what he said were negotiations conducted by the IPS with Palestinian security prisoners over the terms of their incarceration, in order to ward off a hunger strike.
“The IPS, under your leadership, acted by any means and at any cost in order to placate accursed terrorists and to achieve ‘calm’ in the prisons,” the minister alleged.
He also accused Perry of mismanaging events at Rimonim Prison in June, after the IPS refused to allow the son of the head of an organized crime family to leave prison for the funeral of his father, who had been shot dead.
Ben Gvir alleged that the IPS had lost control of the prison during the ensuing rioting and the incident.
After listing another two incidents, the minister wrote that the trust between him and Perry “could not be repaired” and said he would therefore not extend her tenure.
Perry has rejected Ben Gvir’s allegations.
“An unsurprising decision by an irresponsible minister that combines unfounded and baseless claims, a detachment from reality and childishness that show his lack of understanding of the prisons service,” Perry said in a statement at the time.
Responding to Ben Gvir’s decision, National Unity warned late last month that replacing senior officials “at this time harms the functioning of the country during a time of war and is not right.”
In a statement to the press, the party said then: “We expect the prime minister to prevent this harm to the country’s security and not allow decisions based on political considerations in the management of the campaign [in Gaza].”
