The press conference of the Minister of National Security, MK Itamar Ben Gabirtogether with the Commissioner of Police, Chief Rabbi Kobi Shabtai, continues to resonate. Retired Superintendent Aryeh Amit, former commander of the Jerusalem District of the Police, commented this morning (Thursday) on Ben Gabir’s decision to establish a National Guard, and his statements regarding raising police officers’ salaries.
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“Let’s put it this way, the intentions seem like good intentions,0 but between that and the politeness of almost doubling the salaries of the police officers, it’s not just dreams, it’s bullshit,” stated Amit, who added: “We are not small children, we’ve been through and seen endless things, The coalition agreements are bullshit. I wish they could raise the police officers’ salaries by ten percent, I don’t believe that either. It’s just like he announced that two thousand police officers will now be recruited every year. It won’t happen. It also ignores the fact that there is a problem at all, not just in recruiting new police officers , it has to do with many other things.”
According to him, “The salary of the senior officers does not come at the expense of the fact that the salary of the police officers is lower. We need to address the issue of the salary of the police officers, there is no doubt, but let it be clear that the problem of police officers leaving on the one hand and reluctance to enlist on the other, there are many, many other things that make people Stay away from the police. It’s not just the salary, but there’s no doubt that it’s one of the things that needs to be taken care of.”
The former senior police officer also admitted that “all of Ben Gvir’s list of intentions point in a direction that bothers me a lot – the establishment of some kind of army, militia, private security forces, private army, which will be at the disposal of a politician.”
Is the National Guard his private army?
“Unequivocally. As soon as he says that his intention is to transfer the entire Majev under his direct command and the National Guard is the Majev, it is not something else, so yes – it is the establishment of a force. It is the establishment of such a private army that is political, ‘We will show the Arabs that we control Our problem is not only the governance in the Negev, our problem is that there is a terrible crime in the entire State of Israel and one of the problems that he does not understand at all because he does not really understand the police, from 1974 when they brought the responsibility for internal security to the Israel Police a very distorted situation was created in which the police gradually became To have a more security body and much less of a body whose role is to fight crime. There remains a situation where the polling department kept getting bigger and the investigation and intelligence department kept getting thinner.”
This justifies his desire to establish a national guard.
“What’s the matter, the National Guard is not in the area of crime fighting. Crime fighting is first of all carried out by investigators. Today, a citizen who comes to the police station and needs help or assistance from an investigator, he does not get it. The level of investigations in 433 there I think was a good level of work, only that they got it on their heads and they are a little scared, that when a citizen arrives at the station, he receives very unprofessional treatment from investigators, and this is actually the main problem. There is no broad professional force of investigators and intelligence personnel capable of dealing with the very serious levels of crime, not only in the Negev and the Galilee. I live In North Tel Aviv, there are terrible crime phenomena now. The police are not there.”
He concluded his remarks by saying that “it is true that the operational forces should also be strengthened, but first of all it should be understood that the police’s role is to deal with crimes. This issue is there on the side, and now with the new minister it is a miracle, because all he wants is to build some kind of private army” .
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano, 103fm