Judge says Ben Gvir must immediately okay promotion of policewoman he has been blocking

A judge rejects National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s request to further delay the promotion of Supt. Rinat Saban, a police detective whose advancement he has been stymieing over her involvement in the prime minister’s corruption trial.

Ben Gvir has for months been flouting the counsel of senior police brass by preventing the advancement of Saban, who helped investigate and later testified in Netanyahu’s corruption trial. Ben Gvir did not initially admit that his reason for blocking Saban’s promotion was political, but came clean about his underlying motivation earlier this month in a statement decrying Netanyahu’s trial as “illegal.”

The ruling means that Ben Gvir must immediately promote the officer to the rank of chief superintendent, after refusing to do so for more than nine months.

Earlier this month, the Jerusalem District Court ordered Ben Gvir to approve the promotion of the officer, citing concern that his ongoing refusal is “flawed by extreme irrationality” and likely motivated by “improper considerations” surrounding Saban’s role in probing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The affair is one of many instances of friction between Ben Gvir and police’s investigations and intelligence division, sparking concern among legal experts that the far-right minister’s oversight has eroded the police’s ability to function free from political pressures.

In his original ruling, Jerusalem District Court judge David Gidoni warned that “any additional delay [in Saban’s promotion] may intensify the concern of harm to police independence.”

Nevertheless, Ben Gvir requested a stay of execution on the decision, which was rejected today.

“The minister must implement the ruling immediately and promote Supt. Saban as is he is required to,” Gidoni writes. “Any additional delay is continued persecution and continued harm to the rule of law.”