Is the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gabir Dictates to the Commissioner of Police Kobi Shabtai the policy against the protesters against the legal reform? According to a report this evening (Thursday) on News 12, the police forwarded to the minister a letter that was originally sent to the Commissioner regarding the protesters and Ben Gabvir replied on behalf of the police on the significant political issue. It was also reported that Ben Gabvir’s office realized the mistake and tried to shelve the response after it was sent.
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According to the report, the letter was sent after the organizers of the demonstrations in front of the home of the Minister of Justice Rival Levin The police were summoned and the police chief issued an unusual directive to keep the demonstrations away from Levin’s house and allowed Cayman only twice a week and on certain days.
In response to this, MK sent Gilad Kriv A letter to the Commissioner of Police in which he claimed that “these instructions constitute a blatant violation of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of demonstration. They extend far beyond the directive of the ombudsman and in the eyes of the High Commissioner there is great doubt as to the source of the authority that the district commander has in determining them in the manner in which they were determined.”
According to the report, the letter received a reply – but the person who signed the reply was not the Commissioner, but Minister Ben Gabir, who was not the author of the letter at all. It was also stated in the report that usually ministers are the ones who respond to inquiries from the professionals, but here it was a sensitive political issue of holding demonstrations, and apparently the minister’s office also understood the problem and tried to fix it.
According to the report, the secretary at Ben Gvir’s office called MK Grib’s assistant and begged him to put the document away. In the recordings, she is heard explaining that she “made a mistake” and asking to “delete what I sent with the answer.”
Later, she explained that “Hanmal wants it to come from the police and not from us. So just delete it and I’ll ask them to send it to you tomorrow.” In her words, she meant Ben Gabir’s chief of staff Hanmal Dorfman who, according to the report, handled the appeal and was actively involved in writing the response.
According to the report, the same secretary mistakenly signed Ben Gabir’s name on the reply instead of the commissioner’s name, and was under a lot of pressure when she realized that the letter had already been forwarded to MK Karib. In the recordings, she is heard saying “Wow, it’s not good, Hanmal will kill me” and in response, Karib’s assistant suggests that he “won’t tell him”. The secretary adds that “Even so, it will come out with the same answer, but simply not with the minister’s signature, it will come out through the police.”
Kriev’s assistant says, “As far as we’re concerned, we received the same letter, so it doesn’t matter to us,” and the secretary replies: “Yes, but it does matter to him and it’s a little… he just called me and said something like ‘No! Why?!’ And I’m like, okay, my mistake. Because he wrote to me as if to make corrections on the document, so I did, and I thought as if to distribute them, so I distributed them.”
Karib told News 12 that “I deliberately addressed the commissioner and not the minister in everything related to the treatment of the organizers of the demonstrations, but the answer that came from Ben Gabir’s office only confirms all my concerns about his attempt to take political control of the police.”
The police stated that this is the procedure and that every political appeal is obliged to go through the minister’s office and the answer also goes back through the office. However, it is likely that if it weren’t for the mistake MK Karib and the public he represents would not have known that the answer he received from the police was drafted by the minister – the same minister whom Karib suspects, according to him, of “attempting to interfere in the demonstrations”.
The Office of the Minister of National Security stated in response: “The procedure that has lasted for years in the Ministry of National Security states that every request by a politician to the enforcement bodies is answered by the Office of the Minister. This was also the case at the time of Bar Lev – a member of Karib’s faction – and all other politicians. The procedure is designed so that politicians do not contact And they pressed the Commissioner, who is a professional.
We also noted in the response that “By the way, even when Minister Ben Gabir as a member of the Knesset addressed the Chief of Staff or the Commissioner, a reply was received from the previous ministers. In fact, the letter proves that the minister dictated an egalitarian policy towards all protesters and that protesters in front of Levin’s rival’s house are legally protesting in front of Bennett’s house.” .