Court blocks Ben Gvir’s promotion of police officer indicted for injuring protesters

The Jerusalem District Court barred police Supt. Meir Suissa from taking charge of the South Tel Aviv police station, rejecting National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s bid to promote the indicted officer, who threw a stun grenade into a crowd of anti-government protesters.

The national security minister decried the ruling handed down Thursday night, calling Suissa a “talented and respected police officer who has fallen prey to a judicial system that is busy constantly thwarting government policy.”

“As I promised the prime minister earlier today, we will do everything in our power, using the tools available to us in the Knesset, to put an end to this harassment and persecution,” said Ben Gvir, who oversees the police.

Ben Gvir promoted Suissa to the rank of chief superintendent just a month after he was indicted on charges of reckless and negligent behavior in July 2024, over his conduct while dispersing an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv a year prior.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara called the promotion — made without the police chief’s recommendation — illegal. The Jerusalem District Court froze Suissa’s promotion in September 2024, which Ben Gvir then appealed.

Suissa was filmed throwing a stun grenade directly into a crowd of protesters during the March 2023 demonstration, hospitalizing a woman with a direct hit to her face.

He was indicted alongside four other officers accused of throwing stun grenades toward the crowds, who had not been acting violently toward police officers.

The indictment filed by the Department of Internal Police Investigations mentioned two women who were injured by the first grenade thrown by Suissa. One of the women sustained multiple injuries to the face that left her with scars and PTSD, and the other sought medical attention for persistent tinnitus.

At the time, Ben Gvir praised Suissa for his handling of the demonstration.

Ben Gvir has been accused by Baharav-Miara, legal experts and other critics of using his authority in a manner that constitutes “illegitimate intervention” in the force, using the possibility of a promotion as a carrot-and-stick to influence cops’ decision-making.

The far-right leader’s return to the National Security Ministry in March was met with a flurry of petitions demanding his dismissal.

In a bid to fend off the legal challenges, Ben Gvir signed an agreement with Baharav-Miara, limiting his ministerial powers in exchange for the AG’s support.

The principles laid out in the three-page compromise formally bar Ben Gvir from dealing with anti-government protests — directly or indirectly — and impose limitations on his power over police promotions.

But just a week after agreeing to the compromise, Ben Gvir backtracked, insisting to Army Radio that the authority to appoint cops “remains with me.”

The minister has appeared to have breached the compromise several times since it was announced in late April.

In early June, Baharav-Miara reportedly chided Ben Gvir for supposedly flouting the legally binding agreement. She contacted his office over his remarks surrounding the investigation of a Palestinian who spat on a female IDF soldier last month, Haaretz reported.

Ben Gvir touted the suspect’s arrest on social media and tweeted a photo of the man with the caption: “Zero tolerance toward those who harm IDF soldiers.”

Israel Prison Authority chief Kobi Yaakobi later ordered the suspect to be transferred from a criminal detention center to a security prison, prompting praise from Ben Gvir, who said the prisons chief “did a good thing by transferring the spitting terrorist” to a security prison.

Baharav-Miara characterized these remarks as illicit interference in law enforcement’s investigations policy, the outlet said.