Author name: Ben Hartman

A ‘field of dreams’ that wont heal police troubles 

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A rare cause for celebration gripped the Israel Police last Monday, as they dedicated a massive, 2.9 billion shekel training facility outside Beit Shemesh. Coming in the midst of an era of scandal, the dedication of the gleaming, sprawling facility was marked as nothing less than a triumph for the battered organization. According to police figures, the academy sprawls over some 64,000 square meters on a more than 230 dunam plot, and will incorporate the activities of some 19 police training […]

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Casting nets and catching little fish

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Forget about the Iranian threat, the rising cost of living or the new attack tunnels being built by Hamas on the Gaza border. The Israel Police are tackling head-on a real menace to our peace and security – high-school kids smoking weed. At least that was the impression I got late last month, when police announced yet another undercover drug operation that netted dozens of arrests and who knows how many criminal cases. The story was set in Tel Aviv, where

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Public Security – Always the bridesmaid of ministries

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As you probably noticed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Right survived Election Day intact, emerging victorious despite an attack by Arab hordes (i.e. “voters”) descending on polling stations by the busload. By Monday evening President Reuven Rivlin had received endorsements from a total of 67 MKs, recommending that Netanyahu be tasked with forming the next coalition. As anyone familiar with Israeli politics knows, now is when the real fun begins, when the ruling party starts doling out the ministerial portfolios

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One step forward for police, two steps back

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(This post originally appeared as a column in the Jerusalem Post weekend magazine on February 26th, 2015) Congratulations are in order for Gila Gaziel, who became the highest-ranking woman in the Israel Police on Sunday, when she was made the latest female assistant-chief – the second-highest rank in the force. A non-threatening pat on the back is also in order for the Israel Police, for making the promotion – as long, of course, as it avoids being tarnished by yet another

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Caution: Arabs will steal this column!

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(This post originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post weekend magazine on February 13th, 2015) To paraphrase Naftali Bennett, if you are reading this column in a café, watch out: Arabs will steal your laptop. Speaking at a conference at Tel Aviv University on Sunday, the head of the Bayit Yehudi party said public security in Israel had reached a low point, then cherry-picked some examples. “Anyone who has toured the Negev in recent years knows they can’t leave their car at

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The murder of a mob complainant – a reason for outrage

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Shai Bachar never had a chance. The bomb that tore through his car on Friday left him sprawled on the asphalt near the Hod Hasharon railway station, with massive internal injuries and burns across his body. Luckily, his 17-year-old daughter sitting in the passenger seat was only lightly hurt by the shock wave, but her father would be ruled dead shortly after sundown. One witness told Channel 2 that the car bomb which killed the produce vendor sounded like a rocket

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Scenes from a terror attack

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The first news about the stabbing spree on the Tel Aviv bus Wednesday morning came in like it always does – in a short message on WhatsApp, trailed by a barrage of follow up questions and replies, sending my phone into seizures. Just like that, one moment you’re feeding your infant daughter breakfast and the next you’re taking pictures of blood puddles and paramedics, an avalanche of information piling up around you. Somehow nobody was killed in Wednesday’s attack, but the

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Beyond the public eye, a new mafia killing season may be brewing

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On Saturday night in Ashkelon, locals were evacuated from their homes in fear – for the first time since the end of Operation Protective Edge in late August. The reason wasn’t a long-range rocket fired from Gaza, but an improvised explosive device found inside a city apartment building. The bomb was left outside the house of the daughter of Eli Elezra, a powerful local businessman and contractor. No stranger to threats and extortion attempts by organized crime figures, his home was

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Police vs politicians on the Temple Mount

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(This post was originally published in the Jerusalem Post weekend magazine on December 4th, 2014) One gets the impression as of late that if left up to the top command of the Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the entire Temple Mount would be sealed off to all visitors, left to gather dust atop the Old City. That’s not possible, of course, as it would entail a radical change in the status quo, and banning access to one

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A gunshot in Kafr Kana and a new, dangerous scandal for the Israel Police

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“This looks bad, this looks really bad.” Those were the words that ran through my mind when I first watched the surveillance video of cops shooting 22-year-old Kheir al-Din Hamdan dead in Kafr Kana Friday. Needless to say, I wasn’t alone. It all began with a routine arrest on a weapons charge, linked to an ongoing family feud in the city. Special Patrol Unit officers who police the area, partly in order to fight firearms crimes, had arrested a friend of

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