Top Israeli police investigator recorded accusing prosecutors of pressure tactics

Recordings published by Israeli journalist Amit Segal capture a senior police investigator accusing the State Attorney's Office, Israel's state prosecution service, of reviving old criminal investigations to put pressure on private citizens and on police officers it views unfavourably. Segal described the speaker on his Telegram channel as the police's number one investigator and called the material exceptional.

In a later post, Segal summarised the recordings as showing that the head of the police investigations division believes the prosecution keeps files on people so it can use them against them when convenient, and that the unit which investigates police misconduct does the same to officers who do not fall into line. The news site News.co.il reported the disclosure and said it was expected to reopen the argument over how Israel's law enforcement system conducts itself. Two senior politicians responded on the evening the recordings appeared.

Who the recordings concern

The reports do not name the investigator. Segal's posts refer to him both as the force's top investigator and as head of the police investigations division, the branch of the Israel Police that oversees criminal investigations nationwide. News.co.il describes him more loosely as a senior police investigator.

The State Attorney's Office, often called simply the prosecution, sits within the Justice Ministry. It decides whether to file indictments in cases investigated by the police and argues them in court, which gives it considerable say over whether a file moves forward, is closed or stays open.

The second body mentioned is the Police Internal Investigations Department, known in Hebrew by the acronym Mahash. It is also part of the Justice Ministry rather than the police, and it is responsible for investigating suspected criminal conduct by police officers. Its independence from the force is meant to ensure that officers are not investigated by their own colleagues. The allegation as Segal summarised it is that this unit uses its power over officers in the same way the investigator says the prosecution uses old files.

Reactions from ministers

Education Minister Yoav Kish said the recordings again demonstrated what he and his allies had argued for years, that the law enforcement system needs deep reform, according to a statement carried by News.co.il. Kish pointed to what he called fabricated cases against the prime minister, to the handling of an affair involving the Military Advocate General, the senior legal officer of the armed forces, and to what he described as an attempt to silence suspicions in a case of foreign interference in elections. He said reform was essential for the country's future regardless of right or left. The quoted statement does not set out details of the latter two matters.

Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X that the recordings showed the prosecution had become a crime organisation and that Mahash had become what he called a criminal militia serving it. He wrote that for years the two bodies had fabricated cases against right-wing leaders and had threatened and extorted police and prison officers who would not submit to them, and he called the prosecution the gravest threat to Israeli democracy. These are Ben-Gvir's own claims; the reports do not provide evidence for them beyond the recordings themselves.

Part of a long-running dispute

The recordings land in a debate that has divided Israeli politics for years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been on trial on corruption charges, which he denies, and he and his allies have long accused the prosecution and senior law enforcement officials of acting against the political right. Critics of that view see the attacks as an effort to weaken independent legal institutions. Kish's reference to cases against the prime minister places the new recordings directly within that argument, and News.co.il framed the disclosure as likely to revive it.

Where the accounts differ

The descriptions of the target of the investigator's criticism are not fully consistent. Segal's first post said the recordings were directed against both the prosecution and the police, while his later posts and the News.co.il report present them as directed at the prosecution, with Mahash named in Segal's summary. The reports also vary in how senior they say the speaker is, from the force's leading investigator to a senior investigator.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not identify the investigator by name, say when or to whom he was speaking, or explain how the recordings were obtained. They do not quote him at length or give specific cases he was referring to. No response from the State Attorney's Office, from Mahash, from the Israel Police or from the investigator himself has been reported, and it is not known whether any review of the claims will follow.