The Knesset plenum approved tonight (Thursday), in second and third reading, the bill to separate the Public Prosecutor's Office from the Attorney General's Office, by MK Moshe Saada of the Likud.
43 Knesset members supported the proposal, compared to 39 opponents.
According to the law, the Police Investigations Department will operate as an independent body within the Ministry of Justice, with a separate budget, and will be authorized to investigate and prosecute police officers for criminal offenses, including minor offenses.
According to the law, a new mechanism will operate for appointing the director of the department through a dedicated search committee, and there will also be a role for a person in charge of coordinating police investigation matters, who will be authorized to decide disputes between the Department of Investigation and other investigative and prosecution bodies and, in appropriate cases, order the transfer of cases between the bodies.
In addition, the Department of Public Prosecutions will be separated from the Legal Advisory Service to the Government, so that the criminal powers currently vested in the Attorney General or the Prosecutor's Office in cases handled by the Department of Public Prosecutions will be transferred to the director of the department.
Appeals against decisions by the Department of Internal Affairs to close a case will be submitted to the Coordination Officer.
According to the proposal, the department will be subject to the general guidelines of the Attorney General and the State Attorney, except when the guidelines grant authority to a party external to the department. Amendments are also proposed regarding the full naturalization of the Department of Internal Affairs, and as a result, provisions regarding the access of Department of Internal Affairs employees to the police's information systems.
The initiator of the proposal, MK Moshe Saada: "Today we are reforming. This is a good day for the entire people of Israel in which we are fixing the law enforcement system. There will be no more criminals in the service of the law, there will be no people above the law. In the State of Israel, everyone will be equal before the law. There is no dispute that today the Criminal Investigation Department is dysfunctional and must undergo change. This system has deviated from its ethical path. The law will restore public trust in the judicial system.".
Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir: "The National Security Law is an important law that strengthens the values of the State of Israel as a democratic state, and I congratulate MK Moshe Saada on passing it.
""In the last three years, the dismissed attorney general has turned the IDF into a private police force designed to terrorize the police and fighters. It is very good that the IDF will no longer be under the control of an unbridled woman, who will stop at no means to achieve her goals - the deterrence of our police and fighters.".
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