Brig. Gen. [ret.] Gal Hirsch will be Israel’s next chief of police, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan decides.
In his top position in the military, Hirsch served as a brigade commander. He left the military amid controversy since the kidnapping of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev occurred when he served as the commander of the Galilee Brigade in territory within the brigade’s jurisdiction.
However, soldiers from the brigade under his command also successfully prevented four separate kidnapping attempts along the border and his role as a military was favorably mentioned after the Second Lebanon War, including by members of the Winograd Committee appointed to examine the events of the war.
A police chief tapped from outside the organization’s ranks is unusual, but not unprecedented.
Herzl Shafi served as OC Southern Command as a last position in a long and illustrious military career (he fought in both the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War) before becoming police chief on January 1, 1980. Shafir stepped down just after a year, on December 31, 1980, also amid controversy.
The appointment of Hirsch is dependent on the government’s approval.
Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsch (file photo: Moshe Milner/GPO/ Flash 90)
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