Opinion | Sewing bags? Think Again | Israel today

Stop and think: When was the last time you used the phrase "sewing files in the State Attorney's Office"?

Since the decision to indict Netanyahu, the use of the term has become commonplace among politicians and journalists.

This follows a public campaign by his supporters to convince the public that the police and the prosecutor's office seized a case for Netanyahu, prosecuted him without any evidentiary basis, and thus led to a change of government by way of a legal coup.

The idea embodied in the indictment regarding "sewing a case" is that someone in the law enforcement and prosecution authorities targeted the defendant, who is innocent, and acted maliciously to formulate false evidence against him.

The attributed motive is political, as if the authorities have a political and perhaps even partisan position, which they promote by attacking people from the other camp.

This idea has reached a climax in the teachings of Dr. Avishai Ben-Haim, who calls it "legal violence." The ruler's political and ignores suspicions of similar offenses committed by his supporters, and sometimes actually in fabricating evidence against the political opponent.

A similar line was taken in the investigation into the Gal Hirsch case.

The facts in this case are that even before the announcement of Minister Arden's decision on Hirsch's appointment as commissioner, requests came from Georgia detailing suspicions of bribery, suspicions that are indeed risks of the profession when you trade in weapons, but can not be ignored and naturally take several months to clarify. This led to Minister Arden's decision to withdraw from the appointment. In the book of the Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, Malin is about the fact that Minister Arden violated an early agreement with him and did not consult with him before publishing Hirsch's candidacy, thus causing him injustice.

At the end of the investigation, an indictment was filed against Hirsch for tax evasion amounting to millions of shekels.

In the Gal Hirsch case, there may be room to criticize the State Attorney's Office regarding the pace of handling the case (and only after reviewing the case), but the broadcast investigation did not present a shred of evidence of any malicious intent on the part of anyone in the State Attorney's Office to harm Gal Hirsch. To (Res.) Who contributed greatly to the country.

In all my years working in the State Attorney's Office, I have never attended a hearing in which I identified a political or party leaning.

Indeed, the prosecution has a proven track record of neutrality.

Thus, for example, Netanyahu himself came to power after Olmert was prosecuted as a result of what was then described by his supporters as overzealousness of the State Attorney's Office.

Indeed, it is not surprising that of all the attorneys for the State Attorney's Office, no one uses the term, and only one who has worked in the State Attorney's Office for only a few years (and calls himself a former senior State Attorney) indirectly encourages the use of the term "case sewing."

The State Attorney's Office is not without faults, and is particularly worthy of criticism for the length of the proceedings in many cases, but this does not establish a malicious claim on its part.

Democracy is not just about holding elections every few years, there are also ones in Turkey and Russia.

In a true democracy there are balances and brakes between the authorities, fair law enforcement agencies, and a professional and independent prosecution and legal system that the public has confidence in.

The normalization of the concept of "sewing a portfolio" therefore constitutes a fatal injury without any justification to the public's trust in the systems essential for the continued existence of the state as a democratic state.

Anyone who expresses themselves in the public space will do well to avoid using the term "sewing files in the State Attorney's Office" altogether.

It is important to criticize the enforcement authorities, and this can of course also be harsh.

But it must be ensured that it is fair, focused on concrete cases and on the basis of a factual infrastructure.

The resilience of the state also depends on the continued proper functioning of the State Attorney's Office - please do not spill the baby with the water.

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