Zionist Camp urges appointment of female police commissioner

Hours after a seventh top police officer was investigated for sexual harassment or corruption in 18 months, Zionist Camp representatives vowed on Thursday to work toward appointing a woman as police commissioner and ensuring that the Israel Police’s top brass become 50% women.

In a protest of the latest sexual harassment allegations, the center-left Knesset slate announced that only its female candidates would give interviews for the next 24 hours.

“The eradication of sexual harassment, especially among police officers who are supposed to be law-abiding exemplars, is a national mission for both women and men. We are the only major party that has so many women representatives, and an ideological and practical commitment to gender equality,” MK Shelly Yachimovich, a member of Zionist Camp and former chair of the Labor party, wrote on her Facebook page Thursday.

“We do not have any problem that only women on our list will take our message to the public, and certainly in this case that directly relates to senior officers’ abuse of their subordinates,” she said.

Deputy Commissioner Hagai Dotan, commander of the police’s Coastal District, was identified Thursday as the latest suspect in a sexual harassment case.

Dotan was called in for four hours of questioning Thursday at the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department. He was grilled for 12 hours by investigators on Wednesday.

Dotan was instructed to take two weeks’ leave from his job, with the restriction that he not have any contact with any police personnel except his direct commander, Commissioner Yohanan Danino.

The scandal is the latest in a string of sexual harassment claims lodged against top police officials in the last several months, leading to a serious crisis within the force and calls for police officials to clean house.

The allegations against Dotan came to light after several women lodged a complaint with the PID several weeks ago.

Five female police officers who complained that they were verbally harassed by Dotan were also questioned by investigators. None of the women intend to press separate charges, according to media reports.

“What was just revealed in the police is an organizational culture of rape,” MK Merav Michaeli, also on the Zionist Camp roster, declared Thursday.

It was “urgent” to “conduct workshops on the subject of sexual harassment and sexual assault for police officers,” Michaeli said, adding that she had already turned to Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, who is responsible for the police, and to Commissioner Danino with the call to institute such workshops.

Last week, Deputy Commissioner Nissim Mor, once a contender for commissioner, was accused of sexually harassing and assaulting a policewoman, as well as carrying on inappropriate relationships with other female subordinates.

Earlier in January, Judea and Samaria District Commander Kobi Cohen announced his resignation after admitting to an improper relationship with a subordinate officer.

During a press conference last week, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said that the recent string of misconduct scandals have damaged the public’s trust in the police, and that the force would have to undergo a “root canal” to regain the public’s trust.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.