Ben Gvir accuses police chief of ordering violent response to Haredi protesters

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday accused Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy of ordering “harsh violence” against Haredi protesters to appease the opposition after last week’s election. Ben Gvir also petitioned the High Court to cancel an April injunction that forbids him from interfering in police’s use of force.

According to Ben Gvir’s petition, “a quote from Levy saying he ‘wants to see blood’ reached the minister’s ears” over the past two weeks, and as part of that alleged policy Levy ordered officers “to make increased use of clubs and stun grenades to disperse demonstrations” by “extremist Haredi factions.”

Responding to the attack from Ben Gvir, Levy said the minister’s claim was “baseless and outrageous.”

In a statement released by his office, Levy said the “delusional” accusations “cross all boundaries, especially from the minister in charge of the police, who instead of supporting its officers and commanders, chooses to defame them, cast doubt on their professionalism and damage the public’s trust in those entrusted with its security.”

But Ben Gvir doubled down, saying later in the day: “I stand by everything I said.”

Ben Gvir’s petition also accused Levy of traveling abroad in recent days without the minister’s approval and of failing to show up to work meetings on unspecified occasions.

Canceling the court’s injunction against his intervening in police operational matters is urgently required so that Ben Gvir can “rein in the means of enforcement in a proportionate and equitable manner,” the petition said. “The urgency of the request stems from genuine fear of a clear danger to human life and of bloodshed, given events over the past two weeks.”

The petition singled out police action against Haredi anti-enlistment protesters in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh and at the Geha Junction near Bnei Brak on Thursday and Sunday.

Ben Gvir also said that “as part of the commissioner’s recent moves,” Levy transferred the head of police’s Dan precinct, which includes Geha and much of Bnei Brak, to command the Ayalon precinct, which covers the area of south Tel Aviv and sees fewer Haredi protests.

The officer, Commander Elad Klein, had good relations with Haredi leadership and struck the proper balance between “the right to protest and the right to public safety,” the petition said, claiming that Klein’s transfer had not been approved by Ben Gvir and was therefore illegal.

Ben Gvir “can’t look away while there is such a serious departure from protest enforcement policy… especially in comparison with protests by other groups from a different side of the political divide,” the petition said.

It gave as an example the “long-winded” police response to “protesters from the left side of the political map” who blocked roads including the Ayalon Highway on October 7, the third anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre that sparked the Gaza war.

On X, Ben Gvir wrote that Levy “was a chief commissioner who carried out my policy until the results of the election, and now it seems he’s preparing himself for Segalovitz of Ra’am.”

Yoav Segalovitz, an ex-MK and former senior police officer, mounted an unprecedented run this election as an avowed Zionist at no. 2 spot on the candidate slate of traditionalist Arab party Ra’am.

Ben Gvir had already on Thursday, citing “the outlandish images from the Geha Junction,” accused Levy of “sucking up to the leftists” despite having “carried out my every request” over the previous 18 months.

Medics at the Haredi protest between Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva on Thursday reported dozens of protesters sustained light to moderate injuries, and photographs from the protest showed some with head wounds.

Police reported three officers and a media team were wounded in the protest, including an officer and correspondent who sustained head injuries when protesters hurled stones at them.

Ben Gvir has previously expressed support for police officers who used violence to disperse anti-government demonstrations, including promoting an officer who tossed a stun grenade at protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv in 2023, and ousting the Tel Aviv police chief for failing to take a tougher stand against the protests.

Ben Gvir’s petition was filed by attorney Zeev Wolf, who was convicted for a 1992 terror attack by the Jewish extremist Kahane Chai movement that killed a 65-year-old Palestinian man in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Then-president Ezer Weizman pardoned Wolf and other Jewish terrorists in 1997 to give a counterweight the release of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, who was freed from Israeli custody as part of a deal with Jordan that followed Israel’s botched assassination attempt of then-Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Aman.