Israel urgently needs permanent police chief, say senior officers

Large-scale changes sought by Public Security Minister Erdan cannot be made under interim commander, officials charge

By ToI Staff 19 September 2015, 11:18 pm

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Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan during a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, July 31, 2015 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Senior police officials criticized Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan over the weekend for his failure to appoint a permanent police chief, after his effort to name Gal Hirsch, a former IDF general, as Israel’s police commissioner seems destined to fail.

Following the surge in violent attacks in Jerusalem this past week, the officials wondered how the state agency in charge of enforcing the law and keeping the peace is still run by an acting chief, currently Bentzi Sau.

According to Channel 2, the situation in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Erdan are making strategic and operative decisions meant to be made by the chief of police is untenable, the officials claim.

Erdan, who was handed the Public Security Ministry just several months ago, announced from the start that he intended to make large-scale organizational changes in the Israel Police – an organization hounded in the past year by a string of allegations against top officers including charges of sexual harassment.

Channel 2 quoted the senior officers, none of whom were named, as saying that large-scale changes cannot be made when the police is headed by a commander serving in an interim position.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

On Thursday, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein told Erdan that he would not be able to legally back the appointment of Hirsch.

Weinstein held discussions with senior officials in his office over the past week and updated Erdan that he could not remove all doubts lingering about alleged business misconduct in Hirsch’s private dealings.

Gal Hirsch, a former IDF brigadier-general recently named to be the next head of the Israel Police, arrives to testify before the Turkel Committee vetting his appointment at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 1, 2015. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) — Gal Hirsch, a former IDF brigadier-general recently named to be the next head of the Israel Police, arrives to testify before the Turkel Committee vetting his appointment at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on September 1, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Weinstein added that a thorough examination of Hirsch’s businesses may take months and even then he cannot guarantee that Hirsch will be totally in the clear.

Erdan has fought fiercely to appoint Hirsch, a former IDF official who went on to establish the Defensive Shield Holdings firm, as the next police chief, filling a gap in the force.

Senior police officers opposed the appointment from outside the force, and others also questioned Hirsch’s record during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.