AG: Efforts to stop Ben Gvir undermining police independence have failed

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara says that legal efforts to ensure that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir does not undermine the independence of the police have failed.

The attorney general made her comments in an update to the High Court of Justice regarding the implementation of a court decision from April requiring Ben Gvir, who heads the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party, to abide by a set of principles designed to prevent the minister’s interference in police work.

Baharav-Miara says that Ben Gvir failed to agree to the final version of the principles document, something she said amounted to him “rejecting the principle of the apolitical [nature] of the police and the prohibition on political interference in the police’s use of force against Israeli citizens.”

She adds that since the last court decision in April, Ben Gvir has continued to violate the principles of that decision, which she said amounted to a violation of the court order itself by the minister.

The attorney general points specifically to public comments made by Ben Gvir alleging that an ongoing criminal investigation into a senior police officer was politically motivated; public comments about the police’s use of stun grenades during ultra-Orthodox protests; and ongoing intervention by the minister in police appointments.

“The overall picture that has emerged indicates that conduct undermining the independence of the police has continued throughout, and that attempts to stop it through various means have not succeeded,” writes Baharav-Miara.