The Labor Party has submitted a petition to the Supreme Court against the amendments to the Police Order (dubbed the “Ben Gvir Law”) on the grounds that these are constitutional changes "that could lead the State of Israel towards becoming a 'police state', in which the police becomes an armed force at the service of political parties, contrary to its intended role of fair and impartial law enforcement."
The petition also states that even if there is room for rethinking the issue of the Police Order, "it would be expected that before the Knesset embarks on such draconian legislation, the new minister would experience these alleged 'difficulties' himself. However, the minister chose to amend provisions that had not been amended for almost a hundred years, even before he served a single day in his new role."
In relation to the flawed legislative procedure, the petition states: "The legislation is being expedited using the procedure of a private member’s bill. No thorough, professional staff work was conducted in drafting it, and the positions of relevant professionals and experts were not considered in any way. This is contrary to the position of the legal advisor and is being done in a way that seriously harms the fundamental values of our parliamentary regime.” In addition, “the incoming coalition has used every tool at its disposal to shorten and rush through the legislative process, even when that was contrary to the position of the legal advisors and in a way that may create a negative precedent that could harm future legislative process."
Leader of the Labor Party, former minister, Merav Michaeli MK: "The coup d’état of the Bibi-Ben Gvir government should be a matter of concern to every citizen. Ben Gvir is setting up his own political police that will do as he wishes, will arrest protesters, put water cannon on the streets and crush the freedom of expression of our camp. Our petition emphasizes in the clearest way that all concerns this corrupt government is to ensure that Netanyahu evades justice. On their way there they sell and destroy our country and our democracy.
Head of the Labor Knesset faction Efrat Rayten MK: "We have already raised serious concerns about the amendment to the law and about the exploitation of the Israel Police for political purposes in the committee debates on amending the Police Order. We submitted a petition criticizing the amendments based on these concerns and now, even before the Supreme Court has had time to discuss the issue, we can already see that those fears are becoming reality. Within days, the surreal orders given to the police by the incoming minister were made public - to instruct the police how and when to make arrests during a completely legal demonstration. The police are responsible for maintaining public order, and only they decide when an arrest is required. It is not surprising that this happened in relation to a demonstration against what this predatory government is doing. This is silencing of opposition, it is abuse of power and it is doing fatal damage to the principles of democracy."