State Attorney Amit Aisman leveled implicit criticism at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday, insisting that comments made at “the ministerial level” will not influence the decision making process regarding the prosecution of police officers.
Speaking at the Israel Bar Association conference on Monday, Aisman also rejected claims that there is any kind of selective enforcement in favor of anti-government protesters, as compared to previous protest movements, and averred that the independence of law enforcement agencies must be preserved in order to protect democratic standards.
Ben Gvir has on several occasions given his immediate and public backing to incidents in which police officers appear to have used excessive force against those protesting the government’s judicial overhaul program.
And the far-right national security minister along with other cabinet ministers and MKs have frequently claimed that the State Attorney’s Office has been too lenient on protesters who ostensibly violate the law during demonstrations, pointing to what they say is the low number of indictments filed during the course of the protest movement.
Ben Gvir struck back at Aisman, accusing the State Attorney’s Office of having “a left-wing agenda” and failing to implement government policy.
In his speech, Aisman said that the current period was “perhaps the most complex and challenging” ever faced by law enforcement agencies, and said that they have to deal with violations of the law by both protesters and police officers who use excessive force when dealing with those protesters.
“The discretion of the State Attorney’s Office in its individual decisions in each case is independent, and must remain independent, and must not dictated by the government in general, nor by any ministerial body, however senior they may be,” said Aisman.
A police officer is seen hurling a stun grenade during a Tel Aviv protest against the judicial overhaul on March 1, 2023. (Screen capture/Twitter)
“The cases of police officers who are suspected of having committed crimes while carrying out their duties have been examined and will [continue to be] examined case by case, and the decision [to prosecute or not] will be based on the evidence alone,” Aisman insisted.
“The decision in their case will not even be influenced by the statements [made at] a ministerial level that support the conduct of police officers suspected of committing violent crimes… and that criticize the conduct of the Police Investigative Department, without any knowledge of the facts and evidence in the case,” he added.
In rejecting the accusations about selective enforcement, Aisman noted that critics of the State Attorney’s Office, who have alleged that it has not issued enough indictments against anti-government protesters, have made what he said were erroneous comparisons between the current protest movement and previous ones.
Ministers and MKs in the current coalition have frequently argued that the law enforcement agencies are biased against right-wing Israelis by comparing the large number of indictments filed against those who protested the disengagement from Gaza in 2005 to the relatively small number of indictments filed during the current protest movement against the government.
“With all due respect, these are not relevant tests concerning selective enforcement. Selective enforcement is not an exercise in math or accounting,” said Aisman, adding that “events differ from each other in their characteristics and circumstances.”
Ben Gvir hit back at Aisman’s comments, slamming him for “the left-wing agenda which has taken over the State Attorney’s Office for years now.”
He accused the State Attorney’s Office of refusing to implement government policy but rather “your own, independent policies of failing to support soldiers, police, and even backing anarchists who violate the law and make the lives of elected officials miserable.”
Concluded Ben Gvir, “In short, dear Amit, you [and the State Attorney’s Office] are indeed independent, you do what you like, ignore the government whom the people voted for at the ballot box.”
