The commander of Israel Police's Central District, Avi Biton, blamed anti-judicial reform protests for obstructing the police's handling of rising crime rates in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday.
"The protests are paralyzing thousands of police officers at the national level. They were supposed to deal with crime in Arab society and in the end they are not in the criminal arena," said Biton.
The Kaplan Force protest movement responded with outrage to Biton's statements, saying that "blaming the protest for the resounding failure to address crime and violence is a transparent attempt to flatter the failed TikTok minister [Itamar Ben-Gvir]."
"We call on the district commander to serve as an example, to show responsibility, and to retract his inciting and felonious statement against millions of law-abiding citizens who go out to defend Israeli democracy," the protest group continued.
The student protests said that the government's irresponsibility was seeping into the police. They noted sarcastically that it was not the lack of police budget, or budget for Arab communities, nor extremism in the government, but the demonstrators that were leading to more crime.
“They will continue to absolve themselves of guilt, the violence in the streets will continue, and we will continue to demonstrate until it stops."
Police say words were taken out of context
The Israel Police said that the response to Biton's statements deliberately took his words out of context and distorted them to cause incitement and division.
The district commander noted the division. "Israel Police at this time addresses a multiplicity of tasks and the challenges of terrorism, crime, and public order - which 'enthralls' thousands of police officers in securing protests in hundreds of locations every weekend, when those police officers are required to deal with offenses in the criminal area," said the Police spokesperson.
The police added that Biton has emphasized the importance of the right to protest at multiple points.
The Kaplan Force also accused Biton, amidst rampant crime was inciting against protesters and avoiding his obligations, "behaving as if he is trying to improve his position in the race for police chief."
Biton also stated on Army Radio that he sees himself as an appropriate candidate to be the next chief of police.