The High Court of Justice on Thursday issued an interim order freezing the appointment of two key officials to the Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI), which was recently restructured by contentious Knesset legislation.

The court issued a temporary injunction against the appointments last month, but the interim order froze the appointment process and, in practice, the implementation of the new law until a further decision by the court.

Specifically, the interim order froze the appointment process for the new DIPI director and the investigation disputes arbitrator established by the new law, and also barred the justice minister from preparing the budget for the agency.

The DIPI, a Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct, answers to the state attorney, who is a civil servant, rather than the justice minister, who is almost always a politician. The new law controversially gives the justice minister control over the appointment of DIPI’s director and also creates the post of a new, politically appointed official within the department to arbitrate disputes over investigations between the agency and the State Attorney’s Office.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara,........

© The Times of Israel