Likud MK revives bill handing justice minister control over probes into cops, prosecutors
Sponsor Moshe Saada says bill aims to ‘watch the watchmen’; opposition lawmakers, legal professionals say legislation part of coalition efforts to politicize law enforcement bodies
Likud MK Moshe Saada revived a controversial bill Monday that would bring the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) — which is responsible for conducting criminal probes into police officers — under the direct control of the justice minister, and give the minister the power to investigate state prosecutors.
The legislation was brought to discussion during a stormy joint session of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice and National Security committees, in which opposition lawmakers derided the bill as the latest step in a coalition-led campaign to wrest power from professional legal bodies and subjugate them to political interests.
The bill, which passed a preliminary Knesset reading in 2023, would detach the DIPI from its position under the State Attorney’s Office and bring it under the auspices of the Justice Ministry, currently headed by Likud’s Yariv Levin, who is spearheading the controversial judicial overhaul.
Under the proposed law, the justice minister would have the power to appoint the head of the agency, which will be tasked not only with investigating cops and Shin Bet agents as the DIPI currently does, but also state prosecutors.
“The goal of this law is to protect the State of Israel, to ‘watch the watchmen,'” said Saada at the start of the joint committee meeting, insisting that subordinating the agency to the ministry would make it independent.
Saada defended the law on the basis that the close cooperation between police and state attorneys creates a “striking conflict of interest” when it comes to decision-making about whether to investigate senior police officers.
But critics maintained that the bill would politicize criminal probes of police, destroying the agency’s independence and threatening state prosecutors by subjecting them to investigations led by a political appointee.
“The proposal undermines a fundamental principle of democratic society — the establishment of a barrier between the political echelon and law enforcement bodies,” said Justice Ministry representative Gabriela Fishman.
Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar said the bill would offer police officers suspected of beating protesters undue protection from the law, depending on the protester’s political orientation.
“Say there is a demonstration and there is a violent officer, and therefore the DIPI has to investigate him,” said Elharrar. “If the demonstration is against the government, what will the order be?”
Labor MK Gilad Kariv said that the concise bill was intentionally vague, as to grant the justice minister broad discretion in the matter.
“You are an experienced man, you are also a legal professional; I also am familiar other bills you have proposed,” said Kariv. “So forgive me if I can’t accept that you submitted a bill, just two paragraphs that basically say: ‘I am turning the DIPI into a body in the hands of politicians.”
Elharrar and other opposition MKs alleged that Saada, a former senior official in the police probing unit, had “bad blood” with the organization after he was fired as its deputy head in 2022 by current head Keren Bar Menachem.
Bar Menachem also attended the committee meeting, but remained relatively silent throughout the nearly four-hour long meeting. Before the meeting concluded, she gave a brief statement calling the DIPI in its current form a “professional, high-quality” body that she is proud to lead.
“We have brought to light issues that need to be addressed, which align with some of the points raised here, and I can only reiterate what has already been stated by the Attorney General’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office,” she said.
Legal professionals in the room, who were unanimously opposed to the law, were given limited speaking time compared to MKs.
Deputy State Attorney Alon Altman poked holes in a claim repeatedly voiced by Saada — that government prosecutors are immune to criminal investigation in the current system since the State Attorney’s Office is the body that authorizes police investigations.
Contrary to Saada’s claim, Altman said that there are specific procedures in the Police Ordinance that allow them to investigate state prosecutors without approval from the State Attorney’s Office.
MK Tally Gotliv derided the High Court and attorney general.
She additionally openly accused law enforcement agencies of “persecuting” right-wing politicians, noting that she herself is under probe for revealing the identity of a Shin Bet agent, and boasted of her refusal to obey a police summons, citing her parliamentary immunity.
Gotliv also brought up the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused police and prosecutors of conspiring to cook up corruption charges against him in order to remove him from office. He is currently standing trial.
Saada made headlines in 2022 with explosive claims that top members of the country’s legal establishment were willing to overlook alleged illicit activity by former police chief Roni Alsheich due to fears that intervening in the matter would damage efforts to prosecute Netanyahu.
Former state attorney Shai Nitzan said at the time that Saada’s claims of Alsheich’s misconduct, which were aired hours before the now-MK threw his hat into the political ring, were motivated by animus and political aspirations.
While most critics of the legislation agreed that the DIPI needed some sort of reform to prevent conflicts of interest, they viewed Saada’s bill as a step in the wrong direction.
The state attorneys’ union went on strike Monday morning to protest the bill when it went up for discussion. The strike led to the delay of Netanyahu’s court hearing, as the prosecution arrived two hours late to the trial.
The bill will be the subject of another meeting before it can move to the Knesset for further readings and be passed into law. Saada did not specify when the committee will next convene to discuss the matter.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
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