National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has reached a decision that Kobi Shabtai’s tenure as Israel Police commissioner will not be extended for a fourth year, according to a report by Maariv police correspondent Alon Hakmon on Thursday.
The Israel Police chief, who has been serving in his role since January 2021, is set to stand down from his role in January of 2024. The minister can extend the tenure for one year, but Ben-Gvir is unlikely to do so due to a deep crisis in their relationship.
Ben-Gvir’s office has not denied the report, and even said to Hakmon that “it does not seem that there is an option to strengthen the relationship between them.”
Ben-Gvir is reportedly angry at the commissioner for opposing his initiative to bring the Shin Bet into the struggle against crime in the Arab sector.
Ben-Gvir and Shabtai are at odds over a lot of issues
“Senior officials” in Ben-Gvir’s office claimed to Maariv last week that Shabtai was “doing everything” to sabotage the Shin Bet initiative because he views it as “a final stamp that I failed and that we failed as police in treating crime in Arab society.”
Chief of police Kobi Shabtai and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir at the Israel Police Independence Day ceremony at the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem April 20, 2023. (credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)Ben-Gvir and Shabtai are also at odds over a nearing appointment cycle, Hakmon reported. Shabtai wants to promote Border Police Commander Amir Yaron to the head of the important Tel Aviv Police District.
Shabtai himself came from the Border Police, and Ben-Gvir accused the commissioner of choosing Yaron due to personal affinity and not professionalism.
In April, a petition for an interim order to bar National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from appointing senior police officers was rejected by the High Court of Justice.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed the petition in the wake firing of Tel Aviv district commander Ami Eshed on March 9, which the NGO alleged was done over a disagreement over law enforcement’s response to judicial reform protests earlier that month.
Justice Yitzhak Amit reasoned that the petition was too general an application in response to the officer’s transfer, which had been frozen by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara on March 10.
Michael Starr contributed to this story.
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