Yesh Atid petitions High Court against law expanding Ben Gvir’s powers over police

Former prime minister Yair Lapid’s opposition Yesh Atid party filed a High Court of Justice petition on Tuesday night against legislation passed last week by the new coalition that expanded the powers of new National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over the Israel Police, claiming the law change is unconstitutional.

The petition, filed by Yesh Atid MKs Mickey Levy and Yoav Segalovitz — both former senior police commanders — argues that the law change harms the country’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, human rights and personal liberties, and changes the fundamental power system by politicizing the police force, the Ynet news site reported.

The petition comes in addition to a High Court petition previously filed by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel organization.

In a coalition deal struck with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, Ben Gvir secured unprecedented control over law enforcement as part of his newly formed National Security Ministry.

Repackaging it and expanding it from the existing Public Security Ministry, Ben Gvir drew additional powers to himself in both passed and planned legislation, and has secured a staggering coalition promise to be given control of the Border Police.

The deal means far-right Ben Gvir, who has multiple convictions for supporting a Jewish terror group and for incitement to racism, will be in charge of the force that carries out sensitive operations in the West Bank, is in charge of quelling Palestinian riots and protests, and is responsible for policing demonstrations within Israel as well.

The ultra-nationalist party also obtained commitments to advance legislation to change the legal liability of soldiers and security personnel for actions they take in the line of duty, institute a death penalty for convicted terrorists, strip other attackers of their nationality and deport them, review the possibility of downgrading prison conditions for Palestinian terror inmates, and ban the Palestinian flag from state-funded institutions and local municipal authorities.

During the discussions of the law, Ben Gvir initially insisted he wouldn’t compromise on any of his demanded changes. But due to the fast-tracked nature of the legislation — passed in a blitz ahead of the swearing-in of the government along with other controversial laws — and fears the High Court would strike it down, some of its most far-reaching clauses were removed and will be discussed later. These include clauses formally subordinating the police commissioner to the national security minister and dealing with the duration of investigations.

Yesh Atid’s petition claims that even without the remaining planned changes, the legislation passed last week already significantly harms the police’s independence and subordinates it to political considerations in regard to enforcement, investigations and criminal proceedings. It also allegedly contradicts the value of internal separation of powers within the public service.

In a statement, Levy and Segalovitz said the legislation was “a huge constitutional amendment that was done hastily and without understanding all its consequences and repercussions, just because of Netanyahu’s weakness” vis-a-vis his coalition partners, repeating Yesh Atid’s frequent talking point regarding the newly returned premier.

“There is a clear intention to turn the Israel Police into a political entity,” they added. “We have no intention of standing idly by while democracy in Israel is trampled.”

As well as police reforms, the new coalition also plans to enact an override clause that would let the Knesset reinstate laws invalidated by the High Court of Justice.

The right wing has for years sought to limit the justice system, portraying it as an interventionist and left-leaning roadblock to its legislative agenda. Coalition agreements for the next government have prioritized passing the override clause.