Early Sunday morning, Israel Police tweeted: “In recent hours, thousands of tweets were posted on the social networks revealing the details of police officers and calling for action against them. According to an inspection by the security forces, it is highly probable that this is a campaign by a foreign country whose purpose is to cause friction in the public.”
Earlier, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted: “The opponents of the reform are crossing another red and dangerous line. In recent days they have been publishing photos of police officers along with their private phone numbers. They are trying to threaten police officers and prevent them from doing their job, this is a serious and dangerous line crossing aimed at harassing and hurting the police officers and their families, I fully support the police officers.”
Shortly thereafter, Ben Gvir tweeted: “I’m getting an update from the security officials about the suspicion that the tweets against the police are from a foreign country. I’m hopeful that these tweets are indeed not from us (even though the involvement of a foreign country is extremely serious). I will always continue to support the police in the face of attacks against them.”
Speaking of supporting the police, at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Minister Ben Gvir said: “From the first moment of coalition negotiations, I said: the police blanket is too short, we must activate the Shin Bet given everything that has been happening in recent months.”
He continued: “Yes, there are nine billion [shekel increase of the police biannual budget]. Yes, there will be pay raises for cops. All the naysayers who constantly campaign against me, it won’t help them. It’s clear why they do it, they don’t want Ben Gvir.”
“But to provide an immediate solution, I demand that the Shin Bet be brought into action. There’s no time, there’s no need to wait. In a few months, with God’s help, we’ll raise police salaries; we are working to establish the National Guard, but with all the additional missions, all the programs, everything we are doing in this ministry that has never been done before, we must now put the Shin Bet into action,” Ben Gvir said.
