Knesset passes law giving justice minister control of internal police investigations

MKs vote 43-39 in favor of legislation, which the attorney general has said will remove the barrier between politicians and law enforcement, whose independence will be undermined

Knesset lawmakers early Thursday approved highly controversial coalition legislation giving the justice minister control over the Department for Internal Police Investigations, voting 43-39 to pass the bill into law.

The law gives the justice minister control over the appointment of DIPI’s director, and creates a new, politically appointed official within the department to arbitrate disputes over investigations.

Critically, it removes the department from under the authority of professional prosecutors and sets it up as an “independent” agency within the Justice Ministry.

Although nominally independent, the DIPI director will now be chosen by a five-member committee in which the justice minister will control the appointment of a majority of members. Until now, the director has been appointed by a professional committee of the Civil Service Commission.

Justice Ministry officials, the legal adviser to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee — where the law was drawn up — and the opposition have all argued that the changes to DIPI’s structure, including the new authorities it gives to the justice minister, will compromise the department’s independence, politicize it, and politicize criminal probes of the police.

“The bill removes the barrier between the political echelon and law enforcement. In practice, it therefore does severe harm to the entire law enforcement system, to its independence, to the basic principles of a democratic regime, and to the public,” Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asserted while the bill was still in committee.

Right-wing politicians have long sought to remove DIPI from the State Attorney’s Office, claiming there is a conflict of interest in it being subordinate to that agency due to its close cooperation with the police.

“[DIPI] has strayed from its values,” Likud MK Moshe Saada, a former deputy head of internal investigations, told the Knesset plenum late Wednesday ahead of the final votes.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry is in charge of police, also hailed the law’s passage while lashing out at Baharav-Miara, accusing her of turning the internal affairs department into “a private police force meant to sow fear among officers.”

“It’s very good that DIPI will no longer be under control of an unrestrained woman,” claimed Ben Gvir, who has frequently given strong public support, and even promotions, to police officers accused of misconduct.

The legislation is part of a raft of measures being pushed by the government that would give it greater control over the judiciary and law enforcement. Critics of the judicial overhaul, which was largely in hibernation during the war, say that it is undermining democracy and destroying the country’s system of checks and balances, while proponents assert it is a necessary corrective against abuse of judicial power.