Israeli celebrities hit back over police weed probe

‘My name is Motty, and I smoke pot.” So begins a heartfelt Facebook confession by celebrity fashion promoter Moti Reif, caught in a recent police investigation into an alleged marijuana dealer in the Tel Aviv area.

The story became a leading subject of discussion in Israeli media over the weekend — at times eclipsing even the dramatic collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians — after police arrested Tel Aviv nightlife promoter Eyal Peleg, who is alleged to have sold small amounts of marijuana for personal use to some 30 individuals, including well-known figures in Israel’s entertainment industry.

Peleg has confessed to the suspicions against him, according to police, and many celebrities were identified from Peleg’s cellphone SMS records. He was remanded for an additional four days on Monday after police found 23 joints in his apartment containing a relatively meager 42 grams (1.5 ounces) of marijuana.

“This is the way the police conducts its public relations,” Peleg charged on Monday. Harassing celebrities “gives the case the media resonance. I’m only sorry the police got to them through me.”

The police investigation – part of an ongoing policy that has seen thousands of indictments filed each year – has sparked angry blowback from the celebrities and the media.

“There, I said it,” wrote Reif, the fashion promoter, in his widely shared online confession on Saturday night. “I don’t say it with pride, or with shame. I’m not shouting it or whispering it. It’s a fact, part of the routine of my life: brushing teeth, work, food, a little sadness, a little happiness, a little tired, loving, hurting, a joint.”

For most of his adult life, Reif continued in a post that garnered over 4,400 likes and 620 shares as of Monday afternoon, “I have tried to live my life honestly and hide nothing. I don’t think I do anything that should be hidden.

“In Israel of 2014,” he added, “when a prime minister [Ehud Olmert] stands criminally convicted [of bribery], a president [Moshe Katsav] sits in prison for rape and crime families run rampant in the streets, I really don’t understand how and why my joint reaches the front page and the news broadcasts. Hypocrisy, self-righteousness, sanctimoniousness or simply ignorance – the reason doesn’t matter; it shouldn’t be this way.”

Reif’s sentiments were echoed by a wide swath of Israeli celebrities.

“I have nothing to hide,” said actress Keren Mor, who was also implicated in the investigation for having purchased pot for personal use. The noise surrounding the case “is a kind of shock,” she said. “I’ll wait until this stupid wave passes… You always see this happening to other people, and you don’t understand until the tsunami reaches you.”

Police investigators raided Mor’s apartment over the weekend, along with the home of heartthrob actor Yehuda Levy.

“I’m being investigated because I’m well-known,” Mor charged.

Moshe Ivgy, a prominent actor unconnected to the case, claimed that “over 50 percent of the adult population smokes cannabis, including members of Knesset and police.”

“Let’s not make a big deal out of this,” he entreated.

Earlier this year, 11 MKs acknowledged having used cannabis in one form or another, while former attorney-general Menachem Mazuz told Haaretz last year that pursuing “personal use” cases for “soft drugs” such as marijuana was “a waste of law enforcement resources.”

Yet Israeli law enforcement officials invest significant resources in pursuing such cases. Police opened 22,895 investigations into personal drug use in 2012, a figure amounting to fully 70% of narcotics investigations that year, resulting in 5,254 indictments, according to Haaretz.

Popular singer Ninet Tayeb, who wasn’t implicated in the investigation, charged that police were wasting time by pursuing marijuana charges. “The police are having a party. They should be investigating in the right directions,” she said.

The very leak of the names of some of the implicated celebrities contributed to criticism of the police investigation.

“We are horrified every time the name of an actor is leaked by police,” read a public letter sent Monday from the Israel Actors Organization, the national actors’ guild, to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Israel Police chief Yohanan Danino.

When celebrities’ names are leaked in connection with police investigations, “their presumption of innocence is trampled, their family members are hurt and their career is endangered, all without so much as a decision over whether they are suspected of any particular crime,” the guild letter charged.

The organization called on Aharonovitch and Danino “to conduct an immediate investigation” into the leaks. “If you fail to do so, we intend to turn to the state comptroller to demand that he conduct an investigation into this matter.”

The investigation of Mor and other celebrities is not aimed at contributing to charges against them, police said, but was being carried out as part of the investigation of Peleg.

“The investigation is ongoing,” police said, “and all operational aspects of the investigation are being conducted with professionalism and objectivity, regardless of the social standing or identity of the suspects.”

Police sources added that if investigators had avoided looking into the allegations of drug sales to celebrities, they would have faced criticism over that failure.