The Minister of Education and the current Speaker of the Knesset pushed for the bill, will they behave in the same way when it comes from the opposition?
MK Merav Ben Ari will today (Sunday) put on the table of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation an amendment to the State Comptroller's bill identical to the proposal of the Minister of Education Yoav Kish and Yu. Knesset member Amir Ohana from the previous Knesset, which will allow the State Comptroller to grant a protection order to whistleblowers from among the police and security agencies as well.
According to the amendment to the bill, the exclusion of the police from the State Comptroller's authority should be removed, ordering non-dismissals by order in order to prevent the dismissal of whistleblowers.
Minister Yoav Kish, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The bill presents a dilemma to Minister Yoav Kish, a member of the Committee of Ministers for Legislative Affairs, who submitted an identical amendment to the bill in both the 20th and the 24th Knesset and even managed to pass it without opposition in a preliminary reading with the support of the Lapid-Bennett government.
In the further stages of the legislation, the same dilemma will also be presented to the Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, who joined Kish in the 24th Knesset and also signed the amendment to the bill. In the fight against corruption, which we are all partners in, and unfortunately it also exists in the law enforcement system."
"Not a matter of right and left"
Minister Kish said in February of last year that already in 2017, in light of the disclosure of the police's failings in the Yitzhak document and the thwarting of Gal Hirsh's nomination, he sought to advance the bill that would allow whistleblower protection for police officers as well and then added, "Today more than ever, it is clear that police officers also need this protection in order to expose bad conduct in the police.
I hope that in light of the public's loss of trust in the police and the understanding that it must be corrected and not plastered over, this proposal will receive a majority and will soon be advanced in the Israeli Knesset."
Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
According to Ben Ari, the situation today, in which the police are excluded from the State Comptroller's authority to order a halt to dismissal procedures for those who exposed corruption in the organization is not normal, and therefore, the amendment to the bill will allow to keep those policemen who were complicit in exposing the omissions without fear of dismissal, deterioration of conditions and harassment more
"The proposed amendment to the law was put forward by the current coalition when they were in the opposition a year ago," Ben Ari told Israel Today, adding: "We in the change government supported it and the law passed without opposition. The fight against corruption cannot be a matter of right and left, opposition and coalition, and therefore I expect the committee of ministers present to act as we do in matters and support my bill."
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