AG: New appointments are politicizing police internal affairs, could harm election integrity

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met the commander of US Central Command, Brad Cooper, and discussed defense cooperation between the kingdom and the United States as well as efforts to reduce regional tensions, the Saudi state news agency says.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara says in a Supreme Court filing that Justice Ministry Director-General Itamar Donenfeld inappropriately pushed through an appointment to the committee that will select the leadership of the Department of Internal Police Investigations, politicizing it.

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The DIPI is a Justice Ministry department that investigates police.

Baharav-Miara calls on the court to halt appointments to the committee and to the DIPI’s top jobs, citing concern that an unduly politicized DIPI could “instill fear in officers, investigators, prosecutors and journalists” and “harm law enforcement’s ability to perform its duty to ensure the integrity of the coming election,” on October 27.

The Knesset in June passed an amendment that would move the DIPI from the State Attorney’s Office to the direct control of the justice minister. Baharav-Miara, who has criticized the legislation, filed the brief to the court as part of petitions against the measure.

The amendment empowers a five-member committee to appoint the two top officers of the new DIPI, the majority of which would be controlled or influenced by the justice minister or the ministry’s director-general.

The committee members, according to the amendment, are the Justice Ministry director-general; the civil service commissioner; a criminal defense attorney chosen by the justice minister in consultation with the Public Defender’s Office; a person with experience in interrogations or criminal prosecutions who is chosen by the Justice Ministry director-general in consultation with the civil service chief; and a retired judge chosen by the head of the Knesset State Control Committee, which is always chaired by a member of the opposition.

Baharav-Miara charges that Donnenfeld exercised undue influence over the selection of the person he’s meant to appoint in consultation with Civil Service Commissioner Doron Cohen.

Between that candidate, the lawyer appointed by Levin, and Donnenfeld himself, “the result… is that a majority of committee members — three of five members — are representatives of the minister, or were appointed with his significant involvement,” Baharav-Miara says.

Moreover, she notes that the amendment passed by the Knesset sets three members as the legal quorum for the committee to make personnel decisions in the new DIPI.

“These facts… illustrate the political involvement in establishing the committee, and the politicization of law enforcement that the amendment is leading to,” Baharav-Miara says.

Human Rights Watch calls the United Nations to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers’ mandate ends this year.

The peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, has roughly 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries and has been in place since 1978.

Its presence has not prevented repeated outbreaks of conflict. Southern Lebanon has seen successive wars between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

In August last year, however, the UN Security Council, under US pressure, decided to end UNIFIL’s mandate on December 31, 2026.

“Pulling the plug on UNIFIL without a robust international force in place would effectively abandon millions of Lebanese civilians to an uncertain and potentially disastrous fate,” says Louis Charbonneau, HRW’s UN director.

“The peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses,” he adds.

HRW urged the UN to extend the peacekeeping force’s mandate “until the security situation has improved sufficiently to consider further reducing the force.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that peacekeepers will be needed in Lebanon after the current mandate expires, a suggestion likely to face opposition from the United States and Israel.

In June, he proposed three options ranging from nearly 2,000 to more than 5,500 UN personnel to monitor the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and support Lebanon’s armed forces.

That same month, France and Italy said they wanted to launch a coalition for after UNIFIL to strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty and prevent its territory from being “a foothold for regional escalation.”

In July, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for UNIFIL to stay. And Lebanon’s UN mission sent a letter, signed by 86 member states, to the UN Security Council calling for UNIFIL troops to remain with an expanded mandate.

Aoun said that if UNIFIL could not stay, there should be “an alternative force” to “assist the Lebanese army in clearing the southern regions, removing unexploded ordnance, and keeping pace with the implementation” of the framework agreement.

HRW’s Charbonneau says that “the Security Council should not leave Lebanese civilians unprotected.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ADNOC says two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz this evening, the United Arab Emirates’ state news agency WAM reports.

ADNOC says there were no injuries and the situation has been brought under control.

Israel’s combined search-and-rescue and humanitarian aid delegation will take off from the Nevatim Air Force base for Colombia tonight, the Foreign Ministry says, following the earthquake that struck the South American nation.

The delegation will fly in an Israeli Air Force plane.

The 80-strong group — named Brit Re’im, or covenant of friends — consists of IDF soldiers and officials from the Foreign and Defense Ministries. It is being led by the IDF Home Front Command and the Foreign Ministry. The search-and-rescue unit is being commanded by Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Pinto, commander of the IDF National Search and Rescue Unit.

The delegation will distribute food and water to victims of this week’s deadly earthquake, and will embark on search-and-rescue missions.

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