Former Police Commissioner Asaf Hefetz addressed complaints filed by a female officer against Commander Roni Ritman, commander of the Lahav 443 investigations unit. Ritman was recently ordered to be disciplined for sexually harassing female subordinates. He claimed prejudice, defamation, and bias against him.
Hefetz criticized Commissioner Roni Alsheikh's decision to reprimand Ritman, and told Reshet Bet radio that "Police commissioner Ronnie Alsheikh's reprimand of Ritman was a disgrace to [police] protocol and unworthy. The complaints against Ritman are negligible, and such incidents happen to everyone. I think he is an excellent officer."
"Even if it were my daughter, I would have told her it was negligible, that that's life, that we have to oppose this [behavior], but we also have to put it into proportion. I also had [questionable] incidents; more than once. I was also accused of leaks yet I was appointed Police Commissioner," Hefetz said.
"It's really good that we fight harassment but we must not lose our sense of proportion; not all harassment is rape. Alsheikh managed to balance the system and stabilize it, but again affairs that occurred a few years ago undermine stability."
MK Shelly Yechimovich (Zionist Union) attacked Hefetz on Reshet Bet. "I am in shock, because he was a good commissioner - I was sure he was going to be a model for moral behavior and then he comes out with a spate of nonsense and verbal abuse."
"In his mind's eye, the system is entirely made up of men, and that female officer is not part of the system at all. As far as he was concerned, she was mere surplus, and to him she doesn't count. It doesn't occur to Hefetz that part of the system's stability is policewomen and female officers being able to perform without their bodies and souls being trampled by their commanders," said Yechimovich.