Mazuz: Public officials under investigation should resign

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz took a veiled swing at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday, implying that it would behoove the prime minister as the country's top elected public official to step down from office should police decide to push for a

criminal indictment against him.

Speaking at a conference at the Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv several short days before police officials are expected to make public their decision regarding the validity of the investigation against Olmert in the Bank Leumi case, Mazuz said that in numerous countries around the world, public figures who become the subject of a police investigation often resign while the inquiry is still in its first stages.

"I would think it appropriate for cabinet ministers facing an impending indictment to resign, and for this to become the norm," said Mazuz.

"In the UK for example, there is no law regulating the matter but public officials do it because it is the standard code of behavior."

Mazuz recalled that former Ministers Tzachi Hanegbi and Abraham Hirchson both took leave of their posts after indictments had been filed against them.

"The justice system and judicial standards can not and should not be the sole, or dominating, factors shaping social norms. The law is not the only means of determining right and wrong and judicialization is not something that comes without a price.

"The preferable reality is one where a society and its leaders operate in accordance with the norms dictated by good governance and out of respect to social and ethical norms – not a reality where attorneys general and courts act as enforcers," said Mazuz.

"But Israel's reality goes against that school of thought. The public is saturated with criminalization; the answer to everything is attacking through the legal system. For every action or statement made by a public official, dozens of petitions are filed to the attorney general's office demanding a criminal investigation be launched. The criminal justice system was not designed for, not can it give an adequate response to, the complexities of society's agenda.

"It seems to me that in Israel we give up too quickly and too easily on the other tools at our disposal, focusing solely on the criminal ones. I believe that taking a decisive public stance can help with the corruption of elected officials and civil servants.

"Messages that are relayed through the education system, through the media and through political choices is far more effective than random legal steps," he said.