Prisons Service chief says she’ll step down in January, blames Ben Gvir’s conduct

Katy Perry, the head of the Israel Prisons Service, announces that she will step down at the end of her current term in January, with her associates putting the blame on the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“There was blatant conduct by the minister in a way no minister has intervened in the past,” the unnamed associates are quoted by multiple Hebrew media outlets as saying, adding that he intervened in appointments and refused to adhere to professionals’ advice.

“Katy is a very strong woman. and if she decided to step aside, this isn’t to be taken lightly,” they added.

Perry wasn’t expected to get a second term anyway, following a series of mishaps that led to six Palestinian terror convicts briefly escaping the high-security Gilboa Prison in 2021, which caused an embarrassment to the force.

Ben Gvir’s associates are quoted by Hebrew media as saying the minister “made it clear” to Perry that “the cover ups, the nepotism and the shirking of responsibility are over.” They claim that Ben Gvir today refused to oust the Prison Service’s legal adviser, which Perry is trying to fire “because she claimed he testified against her in the commission of inquiry for the escape of the prisoners from Gilboa Prison.”