AG says Ben Gvir must make new decision on Tel Aviv police chief after faulty dismissal

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara says the government must make a new decision on the fate of senior police official Ami Eshed, concluding that the decision earlier this year to remove him as Tel Aviv district commander raised significant legal difficulties.

Baharav-Miara says the new decision must be made “after the officer gets an opportunity to voice his position, and after reconsidering the relevant considerations in accordance with police procedures and relevant procedures.”

After hearing the opinions of her advisers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the police chief and other professionals, the attorney general concludes that the original decision “deviated from accepted work practices.”

She says the timing of Ben Gvir’s move, just after he publicly expressed his disapproval of Eshed’s too lenient handling of anti-government protests, “raises fear of causality” between them, which could “harm police operations and independence, especially in the sensitive contexts of preserving freedom of speech and protection of human rights.”