Are problematic actions and questionable methods sometimes used when conducting investigations the real reasons why more and more Israelis are showing a lack of trust in the police? Or is it the incessant barrage of complaints by politicians that the police are doing everything they can to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Regardless, it is certainly worth noting that data released by Haifa University in December 2018 showed that the level of public trust in the police is the lowest it has been since 2013.

The police have come under intense criticism in the past few years over the way they have handled all sorts of issues, such as their dealings with Israelis of Ethiopian origins. In June, the country was in an uproar when a young Ethiopian Israeli named Solomon Tekah was killed by a police officer. Protests over the way the police treat the Ethiopian community have started again over the last few days.

The most profound criticism revolves around the investigation of the prime minister. According to Netanyahu and his supporters, the police used illegitimate means to recruit state witnesses, such as Nir Hefetz, to testify against him, with the explicit purpose of removing the prime minister from power. Similarly, intense pressure was allegedly placed on millionaire Shaul Elovitch, the owner of the Walla website, who is suspected of bribing Netanyahu in order to become a state witness and testify against him. So, for instance, Elovitch was arrested and detained, even though there was apparently no fear that he might flee the country, and his assets and accounts were frozen for a time. According to a Channel 12 report on Nov. 6, the police even pressured Elovitch’s son to replace his father’s lawyer while he was in detention, since that lawyer had helped Netanyahu with his other cases. The reasoning was that the lawyer was preventing Elovitch from signing an agreement to be a state witness.

While Elovitch did not change his mind, Netanyahu’s former media adviser Hefetz signed an agreement to offer testimony against Netanyahu. Various reports claim that the pressure placed on him was also illegitimate. Hefetz was placed in a moldy cell for days on end. He complained that he was deprived of sleep and that his whole body was covered with flea bites, for which he received no medical attention. Transcripts of Hefetz’s interrogation, which were made public this week, found that the police even called a female witness, who had nothing to do with the investigation, for the explicit purpose of pressuring and breaking Hefetz. It was also learned that the police investigator responsible for investigating Hefetz resigned from the police as soon as the investigation was over. The police then refused to give information as to why he chose to resign and if it has anything to do with the investigation or criticism of it. During Netanyahu’s hearing, his attorneys gave accounts of what seemed to be illicit means of investigation, including the pressuring of witnesses. They then demanded that any testimonies collected in an illegal manner should be suppressed.