Gilad Erdan
Gilad ErdanKobi Richter/TPS

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) spoke at a press briefing Thursday afternoon, following his decision not to extend incumbent police chief Roni Alsheikh’s term.

Earlier on Thursday, Erdan met with Police Commissioner Alsheikh to notify him that he would not be extending his term, which is currently set to end in December.

During the press briefing Thursday afternoon, Erdan said he had no regrets over Alsheikh’s appointment, but said that there were “serious differences of opinion” which made it necessary to replace the commissioner.

“The Police Commissioner and I spoke for about two hours about the future of the Israel Police, and we agreed to continue our cooperation as needed and whenever it is requested.

“When I was appointed as Public Security Minister, I got a police force that was in the midst of a serious crisis of in terms of the public’s faith in it, with nearly half of the senior staff officers being forced to resign for embarrassing reasons.

“I don’t regret appointing Roni Alsheikh as Police Commissioner, but nevertheless we did have serious differences of opinion and also very different approaches to various matters – important, difficult situations which I believe had a very serious effect on the public’s faith in the police.”