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Executive Director Einat Ovadia at Knesset Debate on Ben-Gvir’s Demand To Subordinate Police Commissioner to Internal Security Minister: ‘Politicization of the Police’

On 5 February 2023, the Knesset held yet another debate on the subordination of the Police Commissioner to the National Security Minister. Zulat’s Executive Director Einat Ovadia, who also attended the previous discussion, presented Zulat’s position:

“The day before the elections, the minister promised the families of Hilltop Youths that they would get immunity from criminal prosecution and asserted that State Attorney’s officers who had declared war on the settlements would have to look for new jobs. Glancing at the articles dealing with the Police Commissioner’s subordination and the statements by a politician who is categorically and inherently in conflict of interests with equal enforcement, the goal becomes abundantly clear to us.

“The proposed amendment would legitimize a fatal blow to equality before the law. It would validate and exacerbate problems that the Israel Police already have with regard to profiling, the use of force, and selective enforcement vis-a-vis disadvantaged populations, minority groups, and protesters who hold different political views than those of Minister Ben-Gvir. These problems have been documented in countless governmental and non-governmental reports. In our view, the proposed amendment would allow the National Security Minister to order the police to carry out enforcement based on religious, ethnic, nationality, sex, and gender considerations as well as on personal hostility or political rivalry with a certain group or person.

“The minister would be able to instruct the police to apply enforcement and investigation policies in a way that serves his interests or those of his associates or the government. Officers would be subordinate and loyal to the minister first and only then to the law, as they would need to protect themselves and keep their jobs. If the law presented by the minister has goals other than the politicization of the police, let him appear before the committee and tell the public what those goals are. In our view, this proposal is not detached from the legislative package designed to carry out a regime revolution. I urge the MKs to realize that the government’s plan includes the politicization of the judicial system, public broadcasting, and the law enforcement system, as well as the elimination of the separation of powers. The government is trying to implement it using the ‘salami method’, but we realize that it is part of a general design.”

Watch (Hebrew, no subtitles):

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.