Knesset Constitution Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) will host an oversight committee meeting with top officials from Israel’s law enforcement agencies on April 27, following the recent arrest of a high-ranking Shin Bet official for allegedly leaking documents to the press.
Rothman announced the meeting of the oversight committee, titled Concerns Regarding the Selective Enforcement against Leaks, Harm to Press Freedom, and to the Right to Consult with a Lawyer, by Investigative Authorities and the Shin Bet, on April 15. It was initially scheduled for April 20. However, on April 18, Rothman agreed to the request for a delay by a number of officials invited to the meeting, postponing it by a week.
The officials in question – including the Attorney-General, State Attorney, Shin Bet head, and head of the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Department – requested a 10-day postponement, but were only granted seven days. In their letter, even while saying that they intended to address all of the matters listed in the invitation to the meeting, they requested an “organized agenda” that “clarifies the questions and topics that are up for discussion and limits the discussion to subjects of principle.”
The officials wrote that this would “reduce the existing concern, even if only in appearance, regarding the possible influence of the discussion scheduled amid an ongoing investigation, and reportedly in connection to it, on ongoing investigations or on the decision-makers involved.”
Rothman responded with a document listing 43 questions, with sections such as “Selective Enforcement against Leaks,” “Harm to Press Freedom,” and “Harm to Consult with a Lawyer.” He ignored the officials’ request to remain focused on principle and not on specific cases. The fourth section and final section, which included 13 questions, dealt with the specific investigation into the Shin Bet official suspected of leaking documents.
Israel Police chief initially refused to attend the meeting
Israel Police Chief Danny Levy initially refused to attend the committee meeting and wrote in a letter addressed to Rothman that the issues at hand were being dealt with by the Shin Bet and the Police Investigations Department (a unit within the State Attorney’s Office) and not by Israel Police. Rothman claimed that he never received Levy’s letter – published by Army Radio reporter Yuval Segev – and demanded that the police chief attend.
The fact that the head of the Police Investigations and Intelligence Department signed the April 18 letter requesting the delay indicated that Levy had backtracked and would cooperate, according to a spokesperson for Rothman.
The case in question became public knowledge on Tuesday after a court allowed publication of the fact that a high-ranking Shin Bet official had been detained for leaking a series of documents to reporters and to a government minister. The official was initially held without access. Government ministers claimed that Bar’s decision to open the investigation into the official was geared toward preventing his own firing. They did not provide evidence for this claim.