Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said Monday that legal efforts to prevent National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from undermining police independence have failed.

The attorney general made her stark assessment in an update to the High Court of Justice regarding implementation of an April court decision. That ruling required Ben Gvir, who heads the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party, to abide by a set of principles designed to prevent his interference in police work.

Baharav-Miara said that Ben Gvir had refused to agree to the final version of the principles document, which, she argued, effectively amounted to “rejecting the principle of the apolitical [nature] of the police and the prohibition on political interference in the police’s use of force against Israeli citizens.”

Her submission came after the court’s April decision ordered her, Ben Gvir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach an agreement aimed at preventing undue influence by the national security minister over police work.

Baharav-Miara said that since the court’s April decision, Ben Gvir had continued to violate its guiding principles, conduct she argued constituted a violation of the court order itself.

The attorney general highlighted public comments made by Ben Gvir alleging that an ongoing criminal investigation into a senior police officer was politically motivated; public comments about the police’s use of stun grenades during ultra-Orthodox protests; and ongoing intervention by the minister in police personnel........

© The Times of Israel