There are many people in a society who play the important role of being advocates for political viewpoints and the public debate of other controversial issues – politicians, opinion columnists, and legalists among them. However, there are other individuals who show a propensity to get into the fray, but don’t belong there.
One such case in point is the current Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, whose role as the leading police official is to oversee the proper enforcement of the law, not to be an advocate for a particular political viewpoint. Danino crossed that dangerous line on Tuesday, criticizing Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein for enabling right-wing politicians to “incite Arab unrest” by visiting the Temple Mount.
Showing a disturbing lack of professionalism, the top police official whined about an “extreme right-wing agenda to change the status quo on the Temple Mount,” adding, “Anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount should not be allowed up there.”
Whether his position has any merit or not, and I don’t believe it does, he is way out of line in turning his position of responsibility into a bully pulpit, at tax-payer expense, for his decidedly left-wing point of view. His job at this time is to enforce the status quo, which is the current government policy, but simultaneously, to respect the right to peaceful protest, freedom of movement, and freedom of speech, without letting his political biases get in the way. It’s an admittedly difficult balancing act, but one that is incumbent on a public servant in his position.
Now as for that political viewpoint that was so inappropriately voiced by Danino, there is nothing “extreme” or “right-wing” about citizens or Knesset members calling for freedom of movement for all and for freedom of worship for all at Judaism’s holiest site. The proposed changes, which would enable the peaceful exercise of those freedoms, need to be discussed in the appropriate forums by those who are elected by the people of Israel.
The place for that necessary debate is in Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, not in the National Police Headquarters.
