Netanyahu: In functioning democracies, the government oversees the police

Netanyahu: In every democracy, the government must control the police, army

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to criticize Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara after she moved over the weekend to freeze the removal of the Tel Aviv district police chief.

“In every functioning democracy, the elected government is responsible for the army, for the police, and for other security services,” he says at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “This is how it must be — and woe to us if it is not.”

The prime minister says such a hierarchy “is not just anchored in the law but in common sense.” Netanyahu says such a system “is the basis of every democracy and society, and if you undermine it, you undermine the very existence of democracy.”

The prime minister also hits back at threats by some to leave the country if the overhaul legislation passes.

“You cannot say ‘I support the country’ but ‘If you don’t accept my position I will leave the country,’” he says. “There is no conditional Zionism.”

Netanyahu claims that during conversations with Italian business leaders during his recent trip to Rome, none of them brought up the controversial judicial overhaul plan.

“During my trip I met with dozens of heads of leading Italian companies,” Netanyahu says. “None of them spoke to me about judicial reform, but all of them — without exception — spoke to me about investing in Israel, about increasing investments in Israel and boosting cooperation with the Israeli economy.”