Former police chief rebuffs gov't for 'trying to critically wound the law'
Faced with repeated attacks on police and particularly on Chief Commissioner Alsheikh, former chief commissioner Aharonishky and dozens of other past high-ranking officials sign support letter; 'Harming the police chief is tantamount to harming state security,' warns Aharonishky, while Alsheik himself promises, 'All these storms won't stop the police from doing its job.'
A host of former security officials, including generals and police commissioners, commanders and Shin Bet and Mossad officials have come out in solidarity with Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh as he finds himself under fierce criticisms by members of the Likud government and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.
Netanyahu recently accused Alsheikh of allowing information pertaining to investigations being carried out against him to leak to the press, a charge which Alsheikh has categorically denied.
The most recent assault launched on Alsheikh by the Likud-led government has been the promotion of legislation to decrease the police commissioner’s salary.
Speaking in an interview with Ynet Sunday, one of the signatories to the letter supporting Alsheikh, former police commissioner Shlomo Aharonishky, who argued that the government’s efforts were merely designed to "critically harm the law enforcement system."
The letter, entitled "commanders for Israel’s security," was published Sunday morning in a bid to formally rally senior security officials spanning Israel’s vast law-enforcement apparatus behind Alsheikh.
The letter states that the former officials are lending support to Alsheikh and the security apparatus “in light of the repeated attacks against the police commissioner and the security apparatus."
In addition to Aharonishky, other prominent figures to have signed the letter include former police commissioners Yohanan Danino, Yehuda Vilk, Assaf Hefetz, Yaakov Turner, Herzl Shafir and Moshe Karadi; former prime minister Ehud Barak; former IDF chiefs of staff Gabi Ashkenzai, Benny Gantz and Dan Halutz; and former Mossad chiefs Tzvi Zamir, Danny Yatom and Shabtai Shavit.
"We recognize moves here intended to critically harm the law-enforcement apparatus, the police, the District Attorney's Office, the courts," said Aharonishky. "This is really about trying to harm democracy. Harming the police chief is tantamount to harming state security."
Aharonishky continued to lay the blame on politicians, who "work against the security forces, against the law enforcement apparatus. We've been seeing this over the past few months, not just in the bills, some which are completely ridiculous, but also in statements that have crossed red lines. First there were statements made against the IDF chief of staff, now they're against the police commissioner, and so it continues, more and more. Someone needs to put an end to this, someone needs to say, 'With all due respect, your people, who you were elected to lead, isn't a flock of mute sheep.' We have to do everything to stop this process."
He declined, however, to name names. "I don't need to say who we're talking about, specifically. I think we all hear the voices, see the hands go up and understand.
"The problem is that it isn't just one or two things, it isn't just one or two laws, but a whole process that they're trying to set in motion," said Aharonishky. "I can even link it to what Minister Regev said at the time about the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, when she asked, 'Why set up the IPBC if we don't control it?' It's as if their thought process here is: what good is the law enforcement apparatus if we can't control it."
Aharonishky also referred to the theory that Alsheikh is receiving so much pushback from officials because he was expected to make certain investigations go away. "If someone was thinking this, not only did they not understand the first thing about the police commissioner position or how the police and democracy work, but that we must make a choice here between two less than ideal options: namely, that (they are—ed) either ignorant or evil.
"A police commissioner cannot stop an investigation or lower the flames for whomever needs them to be lowered, so I suggest that any handling of this (issue) by MKs or the prime minister be of the phenomenon itself, and not the messenger. Why is there corruption here, why are there people who are still supposedly marred by criminal or public offenses—start by handling that.
"This attempt to harm the messenger, to show the police who's stronger and who's less strong, will not succeed," assured Aharonishky. "The police has one compass, and that is the law and the pursuit of truth."
Alsheikh himself stated that he has no plans to bow down to present threats over the police's autonomy, which currently include a bill to prevent the police from submitting its recommendations passing a preliminary Knesset vote and a new initiative by Likud MK Dudi Amsalem to lower Alsheikh's salary, which stands at NIS 83,000 a month.
"I've put up a wall," said Alsheikh on Friday evening, as he received a pleasant surprise at his home—a delegation from the Police, Senior Citizens and Wardens Committee, who came to his house with flowers in a show of support.
"The commissioner is in the eye of a storm, with politicians attacking him to hurt the police," said Police and Senior Citizens Taskforce Head Oshra Asaf of their visit to Alshiekh's. "So we came to tell him the police have his back."
Alsheik explained that his putting up a defense against criticism "is a rational decision that has a mental effect: eventually you put up a wall and know that you are doing your job."
He added that "all these storms around won't affect the police's decision-making in any field, and that's what the citizen needs to know: at the end of the day, the police will provide them with the appropriate service they deserve."
