Israeli jurists caution against Ben-Gvir’s bid for powers over police
-
Hashim Sheikh
- . December 15, 2022
- . Update: December 15, 2022 6:52 pm
Legal advisors to Israel’s parliament and departing government on Wednesday questioned a far-right politician’s attempt to give himself greater authority as the country’s future police minister and cautioned that his moves ran counter to democratic ideals.
The National Security Ministry, which has control over the police, was promised to Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power party as part of a coalition agreement with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ben-Gvir has already proposed a measure that would alter police regulations, despite the fact that Netanyahu’s hard-right new administration is still in the planning stages.
As a result, he would have more authority over the police commissioner and police inquiries. Ben-Gvir has defended the bill as strengthening a chain of command between the government and police, noting that his law-and-order agenda helped him finish third in an election on November 1.
Read | UN alarmed after Israel refuses staff visas
However, center-left legislators have expressed concern that the modifications could politicise criminal investigations and prosecutions and have cited Ben-past, Gvir’s which includes convictions for inciting hatred of Arabs in 2007 and backing a banned Jewish militant group.
Amit Merari, the deputy attorney general, said to a parliamentary panel assembled to discuss the bill after it passed its first reading on Tuesday that “the drought does not strike an appropriate balance… between the powers of the minister and the professional independence of law enforcement bodies.”
She added that any amendments should be requested after the administration is sworn in, warning that the planned directives “have the potential to strike real and grave damage to the essential values of democratic rule in the State of Israel.”
Miri Frenkel-Shor, a legal adviser to the parliamentary committee, claimed that the draught went beyond the guidelines established by a state panel of inquiry, which stated that “police must be completely unfettered in its investigations, with only the authority of the law above it.”
Some of Ben-previous Gvir’s actions have been renounced. He claims that he will serve the entire society in Cabinet. However, he has also downplayed attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and wants to give Israeli security forces more leeway to use lethal force when confronted with unrest among the Arab population.
Netanyahu, who has already held the position of prime minister for a record-breaking 15 years, claims he will ultimately determine Israeli policy in an effort to calm local and international fears over the emergence of the far-right.
However, given his ongoing corruption trial, in which he denies all wrongdoing and charges law enforcement with conducting a politicized witch hunt against him, Netanyahu’s detractors have also taken issue with police independence.
