Ben Gvir associates, including MK, summoned, in ongoing probe into top West Bank cop

Chanamel Dorfman, a senior official in the National Security Ministry who is close to ex-minister Itamar Ben Gvir, is being summoned by the Department of Internal Police Investigations to appear before the unit, during an ongoing investigation into a top West Bank cop.

The DIPI has not specified whether he is being summoned for questioning or to testify.

A handful of other Ben Gvir associates were also summoned alongside Dorfman, including former Otzma Yehudit MK Zvi Sukkot and West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi, Ben Gvir’s former security affairs secretary, according to the Kan broadcaster.

Commander Avishai Muallem, whom the DIPI is probing on suspicion he faked investigations into settler attacks to earn Ben Gvir’s favor and a possible promotion, was also summoned to appear before the department.

Many in the far-right politician’s circles are under scrutiny from the Justice Ministry, as part of the probe against Muallem, who is currently suspended from his position at the helm of the West Bank police’s investigations and intelligence unit.

The DIPI also suspects Israel Prisons Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi of informing Muallem that he was the central suspect in an investigation, which would constitute obstruction and breach of trust. He has not yet been indicted.

Ben Gvir decries the DIPI’s summons in a statement accusing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of continuing “to harass and intimidate people close to me, as well as distinguished police officers, as part of her persecution campaign of politicized investigations — again through the means of her private police, or under the formal title ‘DIPI.'”