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Mahash Subordination Law: Finalizing Takeover of Law Enforcement Authorities ‘From Above’

>> Read the full position paper

In recent years, the government has pursued a systematic effort to concentrate political power in the country’s institutions in charge of law enforcement. In the case of the Israel Police, political interference in their work has proceeded at an accelerated pace, undermining their professional independence and eroding the rule of law. This objective is not a theoretical one, and it is particularly evident in the way the police respond to civic protest and use force against demonstrators.

The bill proposing to subordinate Mahash (Israel Police’s Internal Investigations Department) to the political echelon is the next phase in this process. Having completed the takeover of the police from below, the bill now seeks to finalize the process from above by severing Mahash from the State Attorney’s Office (SAO) and shifting its powers to a body that would in practice be controlled by the Minister of Justice, thereby creating a pincer movement: a police force exposed to direct political pressure on the one hand, and the dismantling of the checks, independence, and oversight mechanisms meant to restrain the use of force on the other.

Despite its shortcomings and its often overly lenient approach toward police officers, Mahash remains one of the last mechanisms protecting the public from abuse of authority and overpolicing. Instead of correcting the deficiencies of a complex body in need of reform, the current bill seeks to dismantle it from within: a political appointee as its head, control of its budget, and separation from the SAO’s professional backbone. The significance is clear: the investigation of police violence will be subject to the government’s political considerations.

The consequences for the freedom of protest are severe and immediate. When police officers know that oversight mechanisms are weakening and that enforcement against them is subject to political control, practical restraints on the use of force are effectively removed. Hurting detainees and demonstrators, and the message conveyed to the public that protest may end in violent arrest without any accountability, undermine the foundations of democracy and pose a direct threat to the right to protest, freedom of expression, and public trust in the state.

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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.