Israel Police volunteers are no longer allowed to criticize government policies, according to a new document entitled “Refinement of procedures” that was directed to all volunteers in the organization on Friday.
This comes following the removal of Lior Lipshitz, a police volunteer who had made a Facebook post where he called on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir “to calm down the government’s incitement against those protesting the judicial reform.”
The police document states that “a volunteer will not criticize police policy or the policy of a government ministry while they identify themself as a police volunteer or when they presents themself as such in a press interview, at a press conference, or in a speech in a public place. Additionally, they will not express a policy position on a public network.”
Following Lipshitz’s Facebook post, he was removed from his position as a police volunteer. He then filed an appeal in order to return to his position.
Lipshitz appeals his removal
In the letter Lipshitz submitted through his lawyer, Dr. Tal Rothman from the Perl Cohen office, Lipshitz’s lawyer wrote, “My client’s sharp criticism was directed solely against the minister in charge. This is a politician, who is not part of the police, is not a policeman, is not a colleague, and is not a commander. [Ben-Gvir] chooses to consistently incite against large sections of the country’s citizens, whom he calls ‘privileged,’ including my client. [Ben-Gvir’s decision] was accepted on the basis of foreign considerations. This is a blatant, serious, and illegal interference of the political level in the work of the police. The disproportionality of the decision is striking. The decision to remove [Lipshitz] must be revoked, and my client should immediately be reinstated to his position as a volunteer in the motorcycle patrol.”
Police arrest Anti-judicial overhaul demonstrators near the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, on July 10, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)The letter continued, “The freedom of expression granted to my client, which is a protected fundamental right, allows him to criticize, even with harsh words, the behavior and statements of the minister in charge of the police. [He is entitled to do this] without the aforementioned ‘revenge’ on him by having my client’s commanders remove him from his police volunteer service.”
In the post that led to his removal, Lipshitz wrote, among other things, “I forgot something else…it is true that I am privileged, but you will be surprised, I am not a leftist… So why, Itamar, am I called a ‘stinking and traitorous leftist’? By the way, Honorable Minister, I have a lot of liberal and conservative friends and I love them. And they love me, so why would there be a conflict between us? Is there any way you can calm those who call me that?”
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