The resignation of Tel Aviv Police commander Ami Eshed on Wednesday night was not just momentous for the furious protests that it spawned, but also because it cemented the perception that Israel Police officers are becoming political actors.
Both the opposition and coalition have their reasons to see police brass as political. The relationship of law enforcement to politics was brought into question in December with the passing of the so-called “Police Law,” which gave the National Security Minister the power to set guidelines and general policy for law enforcement.
Critics argued that this removed divisions between police and politicians, and allowed the minister the ability to interfere in police operations and investigations.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was alleged to have given field directives to police during early March judicial reform protests. He was temporarily barred by the Attorney-General’s Office and High Court of Justice from giving orders for ongoing field operations, and in mid-June, the court appeared to signal that it would strike down the law.
Ben-Gvir had reportedly attempted to give orders and influence police operations so that they would crack down on judicial reform protesters. From the coalition perspective, police were alleged to have engaged in double standards in their approach to protesters, allowing them to break the law and block roads. They contended that if those breaking the law had been of a different political or ethnic orientation, the police would have reacted harsher.
Israeli minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir at the scene where five people were shot dead in the Arab Town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, northern Israel, June 8, 2023. (credit: FLASH90/FADI AMUN)“We were elected to lead equal policy for protests and not one police for settlers, ultra-orthodox and Ethiopians who when they block a road are treated harshly, with [riot] measures, and detained until the end of [legal] proceedings, while there is a second police for leftists, that when 10 of them block the Ayalon [highway] the lanes are closed for hours,” Ben-Gvir said in response to Eshed’s resignation.
While pro-reform elements see the police as having acted with a light touch, anti-reform groups were angered by alleged heavy-handedness. They point to physical aggressiveness in arrests and the throwing of stun grenades into crowds as examples of excessive force.
It is over law enforcement at demonstrations that Eshed said that he was removed from his position. The former policeman said that on March 9 he had received a phone call telling him he was to be relocated, and it had been because he refused to order his officers to act harshly against protesters.
“I confess before you the terrible sin, the sin of not being able to meet the expectations of the ministerial level, which included breaking the rules, procedures, chain of command, and blatant interference in decision-making and operational discretion,” Eshed said at his Wednesday night resignation. “I could easily live up to these expectations, exert unreasonable force and fill the emergency room in Ichilov at the end of every demonstration in Tel Aviv.”
Eshed has been informed that he would be moved to a lower-level position in a new round of appointments. The Attorney-General’s Office temporarily froze the move to allow its dispute in court, and in April issued an opinion warning that Ben-Gvir could not use appointments to influence operations. The shuffling of positions was announced to be moving ahead last Wednesday.
Eshed said that he wouldn’t cooperate with the “artificial” move and what he called a “political impeachment,” leading to his resignation.
Coalition members argued that Eshed’s response to his rotation was itself a political act. Transportation Minister Miri Regev attacked the officer for turning to the media, and Ben-Gvir said that he had been the one to damage the apolitical nature of the police.
“Today we saw the dangerous crossing of a boundary that we had been warning about for many months,” said Ben-Gvir. “Infiltration of politics into the most senior ranks in Israel and complete surrender of an officer in uniform to political officials on the left side of the map.”
Ben-Gvir’s police state
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Ben-Gvir’s response is what the beginning of a dictatorship looked like. Labor leader Merav Michaeli said that “There is a political echelon here that wants to transform the police — from the Israel Police to the police of a political party.”
Mass street protests in response to Eshed’s resignation further drew attention to the idea of the politicization of police commanders.
Eshed is not the only issue at hand for the police. While Police Chief Kobi Shabtai has usually had a good relationship with Ben-Gvir, he too will be leaving office in January, reportedly in large part over his disagreement with the minister over the use of the Shin Bet in dealing with an Arab sector crime wave.
This creates an image that any officers that have professional disagreements with the minister will be removed, and all those that are left are those that are politically aligned.
Commanders face an impossible choice, which will have them labeled as political actors either way. If they disagree with the reform camp on how to deal with protesters, they will be seen as leftists operating against the government and be removed from their position. If they crack down on protesters, they will be seen as agents of right-wing politicians.
For some officers, this false choice may be too much to take. The already short-staffed police could see officers and commanders resigning under the pressure. Still, others may create a protest bloc in defiance of the politicization of the police. For those that remain, they will need to work hard to shake the stigma of the left and right that they are political actors.
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