Senior cop suspected of ignoring Jewish attacks in West Bank to win Ben Gvir’s favor
Internal police investigations unit says it suspects Commander Avishai Muallem ‘deviated from the line’ in bid for promotion
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) announced on Tuesday that an investigation of a senior police officer is focused on the suspicion that he deliberately refused to investigate incidents of suspected Jewish nationalist attacks in the West Bank, ostensibly in order to advance in the police force.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has repeatedly voiced his displeasure over police action against settlers.
The officer at the center of the scandal is head of the Judea and Samaria Police District’s investigations and intelligence department, Commander Avishai Muallem. His identity and some details of the suspicions against him had previously been under gag order.
Another senior police officer from the same district, whose name has not yet been disclosed, is being investigated in parallel, while Israel Prison Service Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi is also a suspect in the affair.
DIPI said in a statement to the press on Tuesday that Muallem, along with the other senior officer from his district, were suspected of having “carried out irregular activities in the framework of their positions with the goal of influencing their advancement in the Israel Police, while deviating from the line for dealing with cases of nationalistic crime.”
Yaakobi is suspected of having informed Muallem that he was the subject of an undercover investigation before it was made public.
The investigation against Muallem revolves around the suspicion that his department conducted sham investigations into acts of Jewish nationalistic crimes in the West Bank, merely to give the appearance that probes were being conducted without actually bringing perpetrators to account.
According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper this month, suspicions have also been raised that Muallem repeatedly and deliberately ignored information passed to him and his unit by the Shin Bet’s nationalistic crimes department about the involvement of far-right extremists in attacks on Palestinians.
Muallem’s alleged refusal to tackle Jewish extremism stemmed from a desire to curry favor with Ben Gvir and obtain promotion within the police. Ben Gvir is himself an ultranationalist with a history of criminal convictions before he entered politics.
In March this year, during a hearing of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense subcommittee on the West Bank, Muallem alleged that half of the complaints filed to police on settler violence turned out to be false, and that many such complaints were deliberate efforts to mislead police.
Doubts were raised over this claim by human rights groups during the committee hearing, chaired by ultranationalist Religious Zionist MK Zvi Sukkot, which noted that anyone giving deliberate false testimony to police would have faced charges. Muallem told The Times of Israel at the time that no such indictments had been filed in 2023.
Quamar Mishiriq-Assad, a human rights lawyer who represents Palestinian villagers in the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank who fall victim to settler violence, told The Times of Israel that since Ben Gvir took office, the lack of police enforcement against nationalist violence had reached “crazy heights.” He said police officers in the district were not willing to perform even the most basic police functions to investigate such incidents.
Ben Gvir’s office said in response to the publication of the allegations against Muallem on Tuesday that “what DIPI is investigating is the fulfillment of the minister’s policies, which are adherence to equality: the law for hilltop youth is the same as for left-wing youth.”
The statement added that when Ben Gvir became minister he “made clear that there will not be selective persecution of right-wing people,” and that the days of “unlawfully harming the hilltop youth” had ended.
“Hilltop youth” refers to radical settler activists who establish illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. Many of these activists have also been involved in violence against Palestinians, as well as theft, destruction and arson of Palestinian property. Few of these crimes are prosecuted, with the High Court of Justice recently acknowledging this reality as well.
It was not clear whether Ben Gvir was suggesting that police should ignore crimes allegedly committed by Jewish extremists, nor was it clear what left-wing violence and vandalism he asserted police were ignoring.
The scandal erupted earlier this month when DIPI officers raided Muallem’s home on December 2 and arrested him, and detained Yaakobi for questioning.
A police superintendent from Muallem’s Judea and Samaria District police department was also arrested.
Muallem was released to house arrest after four days in prison.
Muallem’s lawyer Ephraim Dimri has claimed that the investigation was “political” and said Muallem was implementing orders passed down to him by senior officials, as well as the policies of the minister responsible for him.
Yaakobi claims he did not violate any laws in informing Muallem about the investigation.
