Israel Police issued a harsh statement on Thursday against former Tel Aviv District commander, retired Superintendent Ami Eshed, who was reassigned from his position by National Security Minister Ben Gvir in July 2023 for refusing to heed orders to disperse the Kaplan protests in Tel Aviv.

After being reassigned, Eshed resigned from his position, and in an unprecedented move for a civil servant in uniform, held a dramatic political performance, calling a press conference at which he claimed he was dismissed for political reasons and for his “choices to prevent civil war.”

On Wednesday night, Eshed made harsh political statements against the police and called Police Chief Danny Levy a “subservient slave” in a speech at the “First Liberal Congress” organized by the left-wing provocative Movement for Quality Government, which is responsible for the vast majority of the endless petitions to the Supreme Court against government decisions and religious rights.

Eshed said in his speech, “At first they sent Netanyahu’s investigators into early retirement, and that didn’t set off a red light for any of us. Then they interfered in the protest-dispersal policy, and still no red lights went on. They sent me home for refusing to use violence at Kaplan, appointed a puppet commissioner, and dismissed the Jerusalem district commander. All this wasn’t enough—the frog in the pot has long since turned into frog soup, and the appetite for this ‘coup’ continues to intensify.”

He continued, “Because we were focusing on the judicial overhaul, we set aside the police overhaul—the one that led the police to slide down a slippery and dangerous slope of politicization. What began as seemingly legitimate policy-setting has turned into overt political messaging. The Israel Police of 2026 are being run by a gang from Kiryat Arba behaving as if the organization were their own. As we speak, the Israel Police is being dismantled and rebuilt, transforming from a law enforcement body into an executor of a partisan agenda.”

He then attacked Levy, saying, “The police chief, who should have been the gatekeeper and counterbalance to this power grab, has instead opened the gates wide for the minister and his people. No chief before him would have participated in transferring control of the police as is happening now. The minister is insatiable, and the commissioner is his subservient servant. His silence in the face of what the minister is doing is not neutrality or professionalism—it’s full collaboration.”

In response, the police spokesperson published an unprecedented attack on Eshed on the official police X account: “Eshed ended his role under circumstances best left unspoken, including operational failures that cost human lives,” the statement said. “With his defamatory comments, he chose to slander 32,000 heroic police officers who devote themselves day and night to the State of Israel and its citizens. Some of them were under his command, and as their former commander, he should be ashamed! The Israel Police are ashamed of and despise Ami Eshed.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)