Investigators summon close Ben Gvir associates in probe into top West Bank cop

Internal affairs weighs investigation of former Ben Gvir aide Chanamel Dorfman for potential role as a go-between for far-right former police minister and corrupt cops

Then-National Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman attend a committee meeting at the Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Then-National Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman attend a committee meeting at the Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A handful of associates to former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, including his former chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman, were summoned Monday evening to appear before the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI), during the agency’s ongoing probe into a top West Bank commander.

Alongside Dorfman, the DIPI summoned former Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot and West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi, who was Ben Gvir’s former security affairs secretary.

Commander Avishai Muallem, the central suspect in the investigation, whom the DIPI suspects faked investigations into settler attacks to please Ben Gvir and earn a possible promotion, was also summoned to appear before the department.

The DIPI has not specified whether the four are being summoned for questioning or to testify. The agency has in the past weighed investigating Dorfman for his potential role as a go-between for Ben Gvir and police officers seeking to curry the far-right politician’s favor.

Many in Ben Gvir’s circle are under scrutiny from the Justice Ministry as part of the probe against Muallem, who is currently suspended from his position at the helm of the West Bank police’s investigations and intelligence unit.

The DIPI also suspects Israel Prisons Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi of informing Muallem that he was the central suspect in an investigation, which would constitute obstruction and breach of trust.

Head of the Judea and Samaria Police District’s investigations and intelligence department Commander Avishai Muallem arrives at the Department for Internal Police Investigations in Jerusalem, December 11, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ben Gvir decried the DIPI’s summons in Monday a statement accusing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of continuing “to harass and intimidate people close to me, as well as distinguished police officers, as part of her persecution campaign of politicized investigations — again through the means of her private police, or under the formal title ‘DIPI.’”

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