Former police chief: Officers now given quotas of number of people to detain at protests

Former police chief Roni Alsheich says that the force has become politicized and that officers have told him they are given quotas for the number of people that should be detained at protests.

“I hear from officers that they come to a demonstration with a quota of detainees,” he tells the Kan public broadcaster, apparently referring to demonstrations against government policy.

“I shudder when I say that. Beyond the fact that it is clearly illegal, it does not serve anyone,” he says. “Something bad is happening and I don’t know where exactly it is coming from but it’s coming from above.”

Alsheich additionally says that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir “allows himself to do whatever he wants and the political system swallows it because it understands that without him there is no government.”

“The national security minister… talks in forums about promoting officers who will advance his policy. This serves him and not the public,” Alsheich says.

Alsheich also questions the process that saw Ben Gvir’s appointment of Daniel Levy to head the police force.

“The leap between district commander and commissioner is enormous. It’s not one step,” he says when asked to comment on Levy’s recent admission that he had a “longstanding friendship” with a key aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.