Erdan rethinking tapping police chief after appointments panel nixes list

A key appointments panel on Wednesday rejected Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s request to submit several candidates for consideration for the position of Israel Police chief and prison service head, ordering him to select a single nominee for each post.

In response, Erdan said he would reconsider altogether whether to proceed with the appointments of the senior officials, whose offices have remained vacant amid year-long political turmoil.

The Likud minister, who received special permission from the attorney general to make a permanent appointment, had submitted three candidates for police commissioner: The interim commissioner, Moti Cohen; Jerusalem District Commander Maj. Gen. Doron Yadid; and Deputy Commissioner Maj. Gen. Alon Assur.

Erdan also sought the appointment of a permanent Israel Prisons Service (IPS) chief. Haaretz said last week that the main candidates were the interim head of the organization, Asher Vaknin, and senior officer Ilan Malka. It added that those who aren’t picked as police chief may join the race to head the IPS.

After convening Wednesday, the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee said it would only accept a single candidate for approval, though it acknowledged in a statement that members of the committee were divided on the issue.

In response, Erdan said: “In light of the uncertainty that the committee’s decision raises, I will weigh whether to continue the appointments process.”

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit last month green-lighted the appointments even though Erdan is a minister in a transitional government, given the exceptional circumstances of the lack of a permanent government for 12 months as the country has embarked on its third election season within a year.

As a general rule, an interim government is not permitted to make permanent appointments to senior positions such as police chief.

Following the decision, Erdan started interviewing candidates for the top post.

However, the Kan public broadcaster reported last Tuesday, Erdan had previously considered stopping the process entirely after the police department’s legal adviser ruled that the law doesn’t compel it to submit to the minister the full protocol of lie detector tests the candidates underwent. It has only approved handing over an abbreviated version that merely states whether they passed the test or not, the report said.

But Erdan was wary of picking a nominee without full information, the report said, after several police chief picks in recent years ended up embroiled in controversies that scuttled their appointments due to the emergence of troubling details about them.

The police department has been led by interim chief Motti Cohen since last December, after Erdan’s candidate for the post, Moshe Edri, withdrew his candidacy amid a public scandal over revelations about his conduct that came to light after the public nomination.

Several years ago, Gal Hirsch similarly had to give up the job due to investigations against him. Roni Alsheich was eventually appointed.

Alsheich left the force last year following a term marked by public feuds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior politicians.

The lie detector test addresses incidents of past moral conduct, including old issues in which disciplinary measures can no longer be taken against them, as well as issues in which no disciplinary measures should be taken but could nevertheless be of public interest. The results generally remain secret.

Erdan’s associates were quoted as saying that not having the full results denies him the opportunity to examine each candidate fully and prevents him from picking the most suitable one.

Rather than risk having to deal with embarrassing information coming out about his nominee, he would prefer to stop the process entirely and have the police continue to be headed by an interim commissioner, the report last week said.

Alsheich in September said the government’s failure to appoint a permanent replacement for him over the previous nine months had “seriously damaged the vital independence of the force.”

“There are many candidates from within the police who could fulfill the role. The elections should not delay the appointment of the police commissioner,” he said at Channel 12’s Influencers Conference in Tel Aviv.

Alsheich’s four-year term ended after Erdan, who often clashed with the commissioner, declined to extend his tenure by the customary additional year.

Alsheich oversaw the police investigations into Netanyahu. The prime minister, who orchestrated Alsheich’s appointment to the post, had made little secret of his dislike for the police chief over recent years, accusing him of leaking information from the investigations to the press and of conducting a “witch hunt.”