Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh pledged Thursday that Israeli law enforcement officers would stay out of political battles and remain neutral during investigations of senior political leaders, two days after Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the police of 'ruining peoples lives with fruitless investigations'.
Speaking at a police ceremony on Thursday, Alsheikh insisted that Israeli police "are not part of this issue. The police also don't need to be part of this conversation. We have continue to do our work professionally. That's how we do it and that is how we've always done it."
Alsheikh also denied that Netanyahu was pressuring the police during its ongoing investigation of the Prime Minister.
Israeli police, he continued, "are operating as they always do. I don't see anything interfering with the police's ability to do their job."
On Tuesday, Netanyahu told a raucous crowd at a Hanukkah event in Kfar Maccabiah for Likud supporters that even should the police choose to recommend charges against him, they would be meaningless because "the vast majority of police recommendations end with nothing. More than 60 percent of police recommendations are thrown out.”
Netanyahu likened himself to President Reuven Rivlin, who underwent a three and a half year police investigation which ended without an indictment. "These recommendations will be thrown aside and will end with nothing. And I say this for a simple reason: There will be nothing because there was nothing" reiterated Netanyahu.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) also backed up Alsheikh in wake of Netanyahu's comments, which many saw as an attack on the police. "Mr. Commissioner, keep going," Kahlon told Alsheikh at a Hanukka candle lighting ceremony. "Keep doing the important work that you’re doing."