Police chief accuses prosecutors of holding cases as leverage

Recordings of Chief Superintendent Boaz Belet, head of the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Division, aired Sunday evening on Channel 12 News, reveal sharp and unusual criticism from within the top ranks of the police force directed at the law enforcement system. In his remarks, Belet attacked the State Attorney's Office and the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers (Mahash), raising serious allegations about how cases are managed, how pressure is applied, and how crime organizations are handled.

At the center of Belet's criticism is his claim that the State Attorney's Office keeps cases open for extended periods without advancing proceedings, in order to use them when needed as leverage against those involved. "There are quite a few incidents here where any reasonable person understands these are drawer files," Belet said in the recording. According to him, "They put it in a drawer, do nothing with it for a year, and after a year they take it out and do a supplementary investigation."

The criticism did not stop at the State Attorney's Office. Belet claimed that Mahash uses similar tools against police officers, and that the ability to summon an officer for questioning serves, in his words, as a deterrent against those who deviate from what is expected of them. "They use the same tools on police officers through Mahash," he said, adding: "You stepped out of line in something? All it takes is to come and summon you now to the hot seat."

The head of the investigations division later pointed an accusing finger at the State Attorney's Office regarding the handling of crime in the Arab sector as well. According to him, cases involving serious offenses remain without adequate treatment, while the system focuses primarily on the area of public corruption. "Today the State Attorney's Office in the State of Israel is not being managed," Belet claimed. "It is managed only in one niche called public corruption, and all the other matters are as if they don't concern them."

Belet also criticized the conduct of the police force itself, warning of a phenomenon in which officers and commanders avoid contact with senior criminals, out of fear of getting entangled or being harmed. He described the decline in the frequency of encounters between police and criminals as a metric that indicates, in his view, the level of determination of officers in the field.

As an example, he cited the Abu Latif crime organization: according to him, in the past checks were conducted regarding it about twenty times a year, whereas today the frequency is much lower, to the point that he claims not even one check per year takes place. "Ask yourself why no one wants to rub up against him," he said.

Belet explained that some officers prefer from the outset to avoid encounters with criminals who might put them in an inferior position, and in other cases officers even ignore incidents they come across. According to him, as the years pass, the number of interfaces between police and criminals continues to decrease.

The remarks, exposed by Amit Segal on the main edition of Channel 12 News, are particularly unusual given Belet's senior position in the police system. They present a picture of deep disputes within the law enforcement system, not only around the relations between the police and the State Attorney's Office and Mahash, but also regarding the police's ability to deal decisively with crime families.

It should be noted that Belet holds a central position in the police force, and these recordings raise questions about the relationship between the various law enforcement bodies. The public criticism from such a senior figure in the police toward the State Attorney's Office and Mahash is a rare phenomenon, and it may affect the public discourse on law enforcement and the handling of crime. The recordings also raise the question of how cooperation between the different bodies in the system can be improved, and how to strengthen determination in dealing with crime organizations.