Court rejects Ben Gvir’s bid to further delay promotion of detective who investigated PM

The Jerusalem District Court on Monday rejected National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s request that it stay a ruling ordering him to promote Supt. Rinat Saban, an investigator in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption case whose advancement Ben Gvir has stymied.

“The minister must implement the ruling immediately and promote Supt. Saban as he is required to,” wrote Judge David Gidoni in his ruling. “Any additional delay is continued persecution and continued harm to the rule of law.”

Ben Gvir has for over nine months refused to promote Saban to the rank of chief superintendent, flouting the counsel of senior police brass. Saban has appealed to the court against the minister.

The affair is one of many instances of friction between Ben Gvir and the police’s investigations and intelligence division, sparking concern among legal experts that the far-right minister’s oversight has eroded the police’s ability to function free from political pressures.

In his original ruling, Gidoni said Ben Gvir’s refusal to promote Saban was “flawed by extreme irrationality” and likely motivated by “improper considerations,” and that any further delay in her promotion could “intensify the concern of harm to police independence.”

Traditionally, the minister responsible for police signs off on officers’ promotions in rank. However, the signature was seen as little more than a formality until Ben Gvir was appointed in December 2022.

Ben Gvir signed off on Saban’s promotion in December 2024 conditional on her completing the police command and staff course. She finished the course in April 2025, a month after testifying against Netanyahu in court. Then, in a reversal, he blocked the promotion.

Saban, who serves as an assistant to Deputy Commissioner Boaz Blatt in the police’s investigations and intelligence division, accused Ben Gvir last month of threatening her and other officers’ careers if they get involved in certain cases that damage his political prospects.

Ben Gvir did not initially admit that his reason for blocking Saban’s promotion was political, but came clean about his underlying motivation earlier this month in a statement decrying Netanyahu’s trial, in which Saban has testified, as “illegal.”

The premier is on trial for fraud and breach of trust in three cases and bribery in one of them. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and claims all three cases were fabricated by the police and state prosecution in an attempted political coup.