Ben Gvir waves off AG’s office demand that he allow promotion of officer who clashed with him

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir shrugs off a letter from the Attorney General’s Office demanding he stop blocking the promotion of Chief Supt. Ruti Hauslich, a high-ranking police detective, reportedly openly disagreed with him in meetings.

Gil Limon, the deputy to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, urged the far-right minister in a letter to stop behaving like a “super commissioner” of police by exerting control over promotions to punish dissenting officers.

“You are not supposed to serve as a ‘super commissioner’ and are not the commander of police officers. You aren’t authorized to ‘punish’ officers for their professional work just because it isn’t to your liking,” the letter reads, according to Ynet.

Ben Gvir responds in a cursory post to X: “I heard you, Gali. Your advice was not accepted. We are pressing on with full force.”

According to Haaretz, Hauslich has expressed positions opposing those of Ben Gvir in several discussions with the minister, especially when it came to how police should handle incitement offenses.

This is not the first time Ben Gvir has refused to sign off on the promotion of a police officer, seemingly due to his own considerations.

Since last year, he has been refusing to promote Supt. Rinat Saban, another officer in the police’s investigations and intelligence division, testified against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his graft trial.