Israel High Court bans Ben-Gvir from issuing police orders on protests

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has been banned by the High Court of Justice, from issuing operational orders to the police concerning their handling of demonstrations and the use of force during protests.

Justice Uzi Vogelman, the interim Supreme Court president, stated that today’s decision comes after the court determined that Ben-Gvir had violated a ruling in March in which he was not permitted to issue orders to police protests.

The recent decision was further prompted by a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, following a tweet in which he claimed to have directed the police to prevent a demonstration organised by the Jewish-Arab Hadash Party, focused on opposing the continuation of Israel’s war in Gaza and advocating for the release of Israeli prisoners of war held in Gaza.

The Movement for Quality Government, one of the petitioners in the case, asserted: “Israel Police is not a political police, and Ben-Gvir can’t take control of them and manage them as if they were [his party] Otzma Yehudit’s police.”

Additionally, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara informed the High Court that Ben-Gvir had “overstepped the bounds” of his authority to establish general policy, and was inappropriately intruding into the professional discretion of the police.

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The High Court ruled that Ben-Gvir “must refrain from giving operational instructions and instructions to the police regarding the implementation of his policy regarding the exercise of the right to demonstration and freedom of protest.”

In response, Ben-Gvir claims that the High Court ruling deprives him of “the authority to prevent support for an enemy during wartime,” and was an example of “serious moral confusion.”

“The State of Israel is fighting for its existence and its security, and it’s inconceivable how such a decision could be issued, which permits the enemy to demonstrate against our soldiers, particularly at a time in which on a daily basis we are burying the best of our combat soldiers.”

Mass protests have been taking place around Israel, with demonstrators calling for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, an end to the war on Gaza and the return of prisoners of war held there.

Opinion polls conducted by Israeli media in the past few days suggest that if early elections were held now, Netanyahu would be unable to form a government, while former Defence Minister Benny Gantz is considered the most likely to succeed.

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