{"id":94810,"date":"2026-05-02T22:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T22:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94810\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T22:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T22:14:11","slug":"high-court-itamar-ben-gvir-cannot-bar-prison-officials-police-from-knesset-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94810\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court: Itamar Ben-Gvir cannot bar prison officials, police from Knesset hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir cannot prevent representatives of the Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service<\/a> from appearing before Knesset committees, Israel\u2019s High Court of Justice ruled Wednesday, reinforcing the legislature\u2019s oversight authority over the executive branch.<\/p>\n

The ruling came in response to a petition filed by MK Meirav Cohen<\/a> (Yesh Atid<\/a>). The court also determined that a minister\u2019s personal attendance does not replace the need for professional officials to answer lawmakers\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n

Cohen welcomed the decision, calling it a win for parliamentary accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won! There are judges in Jerusalem! Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/a> will be forced, against his will, to send representatives from the police and the Israel Prison Service to report to the Committee on the Status of Women regarding violence against women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe High Court protected the dignity of the Knesset and the balance between it and the government, in a situation where the Knesset speaker failed and did not assist me, due to narrow political considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope this important ruling will help all Knesset committees in dealing with ministers who think they are above the law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In its decision, the court emphasized that civil servants are obligated to appear before Knesset committees, stating that the duty is \u201cclear and, on its face, does not grant discretion to the minister or the civil servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a relatively rare move, the justices also ordered the government to pay 3,000 shekels in legal costs, noting that the petition helped restore proper governance practices.<\/p>\n

The dispute began in December 2025, when Ben-Gvir directed his ministry to block participation in meetings of the Committee on the Status of Women and a separate Knesset committee dealing with immigration and absorption. He cited what he described as \u201cinappropriate conduct\u201d by opposition lawmakers chairing the panels.<\/p>\n

After her appeals to the Knesset speaker and other officials went unanswered, Cohen filed a petition with the High Court in January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir cannot prevent representatives of the Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[14666,37,5869,18426,8750,4028,30077],"class_list":{"0":"post-94810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-high-court-of-justice","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-israel-police","11":"tag-israel-prison-service","12":"tag-itamar-ben-gvir","13":"tag-knesset","14":"tag-yesh-atid"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116507289980528916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}