The man who saw the rot in the law enforcement system up close: "They are criminals" | Listen
Knesset member Moshe Saada, former deputy head of Mahash, reveals the behind-the-scenes of Israel's judicial system. In the "Al Ze" podcast, he discusses the Military Advocate General affair, the Force 100 case, and the need for fundamental reforms in law enforcement.
Knesset member Moshe Saada from the Likud party knows the law enforcement system from the inside. For about seven years, he served as deputy head of the Police Investigation Department (Mahash), a role that gave him deep familiarity with one of the most sensitive and important bodies in the Israeli judicial and law enforcement system. In recent years, since leaving the system and turning to politics, Saada has become one of the most prominent and sharp voices against the conduct of senior officials in the system he knew up close.
In the new episode of the podcast "Al Ze" ("About This"), Saada returns in an interview with Shirit Avitan Cohen to the behind-the-scenes of the years he operated in the system, and speaks openly about what he defines as a deep failure in law enforcement mechanisms. He addresses the Military Advocate General affair and the Sde Teiman affair, tells of the struggle he led to promote the Mahash law, and explains why he believes the system needs fundamental change - alongside the good people who, according to him, are still within it.
"Those same people who are supposed to uphold the law and do justice - they are literally criminals," Saada says during the conversation. "With them, it is permitted to obstruct investigations, permitted to forge documents, permitted to threaten people. We are talking here about the holy of holies of the State of Israel - and terrible things are done there. The truth is irrelevant there."
The Military Advocate General affair: "They didn't want to get to the truth"
One of the central topics Saada talks about in the episode is the Military Advocate General affair. According to him, the conduct in the affair revealed to him a broader phenomenon - a law enforcement system that struggles to investigate itself when doing so might embarrass its people.
"You see it well in the Military Advocate General affair. Everyone knows that Gali is a criminal and Amit is a criminal. They didn't want to get to the truth in the affair - even though everyone knew that the Military Advocate General was the leaker," Saada claims.
"Just as in the kibbutzim they used to always close everything within the family, and not wash dirty laundry in public - so they did in the law enforcement system. They didn't want to embarrass the system, so they simply didn't investigate the Military Advocate General. They leaked the video - and created a blood libel in the world. In the end, it turned back on them, and it turned out that an entire system is corrupt."
Saada also refers to the Force 100 fighters and what he sees as the huge gap between the suspicions and the proceedings taken against them and the reality as he knows it.
"Without me and a few other justice-seeking people, the Force 100 personnel would still be in prison today for the crime of rape, with a sentence of 7-10 years in prison for a rape that never happened, and with an international arrest warrant. And where are they today? Fighting in Lebanon and protecting us all."
"An entire system tried to take them down, and I will not rest until the people responsible for this are investigated and face justice," he adds.
The struggle for the Mahash law
Later in the conversation, Saada tells about the struggle he led to promote the Mahash law and about the confrontations that accompanied him along the way. The law removes Mahash from the responsibility of the State Attorney's Office, turns it into an independent unit in the Ministry of Justice that grants separate prosecution powers, and changes the search committees for appointing senior officials so that the Minister of Justice and the Ministry's Director General have significant influence in them. According to Saada, the attempt to change the oversight mechanisms of the law enforcement system met with significant resistance from elements in the system.
"When I tried to pass the Mahash law in the committees, Gali Baharav-Miara sent Amnon Abramovich to threaten me on Channel 12," Saada claims. "Mr. Abramovich says in the studio, 'Saada is doing a 'tahurization' (purification) of the State of Israel and we are going to investigate him'."
According to him, his next meeting with Baharav-Miara already took place in a completely different atmosphere: "I met Gali afterwards, looked her straight in the eye and said to her, 'The era where you intimidate elected officials is over'."
Saada sees the Mahash law as a significant step in changing the system, but for him, it is only the beginning of a process.
"We made a significant change that there hasn't been like since the days of the founding of the state. It's a process, but in the end, everything will be investigated - because there is justice and there is a judge."
The goal: Minister of Justice
Ahead of the elections, Saada clarifies that he aspires to become the next Minister of Justice in order to lead to change from within, and to fix the ills he mentioned throughout the interview.
"I will come to these people through the front door, as Minister of Justice. I am part of the system, and therefore I want to fix it," he says. "Most of the people in the system are good people who want justice. Very senior prosecutors tell me in private conversations, 'Amit Isman is corrupt'. They are screaming it. Even when I said in the committee in front of everyone that Gali Baharav-Miara is corrupt, senior people approached me and said, 'We understand you'. The way is to harness the people from within and make a change."
