The chairman of Otzma Yehudit and the designated Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, addressed today (Wednesday) to the Legal Advisor to the Government Gali Beharve-Miara, in an urgent letter and demanded to order a curfew on all appointments in the police. Senior police officers on the eve of the new government’s entry,” he wrote. The Minister of Internal Security, Amr Bar-Lev, responded this evening to the words at a conference at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies.
“There is nothing political here”
On the appointment process in the police, Bar-Lev said: “The minister approves appointments. There is no way that the minister decides on appointments without them being brought to him. Every appointment that I approve is an appointment that the commissioner brings after a general command staff discussion (SPC) with such and such recommendations. In the case of the appointments now, this is a process that is not related to the elections and started even before the elections. It is an internal process, its bureaucratic part between the police and the ministry, and it has reached its limit in the last few days. There is nothing political here, and I have no personal touch with one of the candidates. This is a continuation of My policy is to act matter-of-factly, not politically, not personally.”
In response to the question of whether there is an attempt to build a case to fire the commissioner, Bar-Lev said: “That sounds very bad. He also wants to change the police order and take over the Israel Police and become chief commissioner. Even now he wants to start off on the left foot with the commissioner “L and with others. It sounds very bad. Commissioner Kobi Shabtai is a good commissioner for this period, and for the extraordinary operational efforts we have made in the last year and a half, and we need to continue them. Both from a practical and state perspective, it is a disaster to do this. If “The police command will really be changed, this is the first takeover. And if the government also decides to oust the commissioner, then it’s literally putting a puppet there and turning it into his private army,” he explained.
“What, we want to set the whole Middle East on fire?”
According to the outgoing minister, the designated minister made two very difficult moves in the last two weeks. “One is going against the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense on the whole issue of a Givat fighter in Hebron, and the second is appearing at the trial of an MGB police officer. This is a man who challenges the entire legal system in the State of Israel. In his desire to change the police order, which was enacted so that the police would be independent and state-owned, and will not act on the tactical and operative level according to the whims of this or that minister. As long as it’s policy-making, that’s fine. But that’s banging your head against the wall. What, we want to set the whole Middle East on fire?”
Later on he was asked if he was afraid that Ben Gvir would set the Middle East on fire, Bar-Lev replied: “I am certainly afraid. Also if he decides to go up to the Temple Mount as the Minister of Internal Security; certainly if he works to change the procedures today that Jews do not pray on the Temple Mount – This is an explosion in the Middle East, there is no question here at all.”