MKs from several different parties sent a letter to Internal Security Minister Amir Ohana calling on him to establish an external commission of inquiry to investigate the death of Ahuvya Sandak, the 16-year-old who was killed in a police chase in Binyamin last week.
The MKs expressed in their letter a fear that a gulf is being formed between the citizenry and the police following the incident and concerns that the police are attempting to whitewash the officers' role in Sandak's death.
The letter was signed by 19 MKs from the Likud, Shas, Torah Judaism, Yamina and Jewish Home. The MKs wrote that they were "in pain over the shocking incident in which the dear boy Ahuvya Sandak was killed during a police chase that ended in a serious accident. This is a very serious, painful and unprecedented incident."
"We fear an abyss may open up between the Israel Police and large sections of the public, with an emphasis on the youth, in the wake of this tragedy," they added.
"There is a public sense of wrong priorities [in the police], in which enormous resources are allocated to monitor a small group of settlers, while many nationalist and criminal incidents affecting settlers and IDF forces on a daily basis are not addressed at all," the MKs stated.
In conclusion, they called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry: "It is of the utmost importance to restore trust. There is no other way to do this than to set up an external commission of inquiry. A police commission of inquiry, or a spot check by DIPI, although important, will not restore public trust, and this will hurt us all. We appeal to you to exercise your authority as Minister of Internal Security and to establish an external commission of inquiry to examine the procedures of the Nationalist Crime Unit in the Judea and Samaria district."
The letter was signed by Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz, and MKs Miki Zohar, Amit Halevi, Ariel Kellner, Shlomo Karhi, Shevach Stern, May Golan, Yisrael Eichler, Matan Kahana, Kati Shitrit, Yitzhak Pindros, Eliyahu Baruchi, Meir Porush, Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer, Ayelet Shaked, Moshe Arbel, Michael Malchieli, and Moshe Abutbul.