Ex-police chief Moshe Mizrahi to run on Labor list

Mizrahi served as the commander of the national police unit for serious and international crimes, heading the investigation of many cases.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Moshe Mizrahi 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Moshe Mizrahi 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Cmdr. (res.) Moshe Mizrahi told Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich on Wednesday that he would run for a spot on the party’s Knesset slate in the next elections.
Mizrahi served as the commander of the national police unit for serious and international crimes, heading the investigation of many cases, including that of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
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He retired from the police in July 2006 and completed the three-year cooling-off period required for top police and IDF officers prior to entering politics.
Yacimovich welcomed Mizrahi’s announcement, saying that he is one of the “senior fighters for the rule of law and against corruption.” She said that in the police, he paid a personal price for his fight.
Mizrahi said he joined Labor because the party was the best fit for his ideology, particularly regarding socioeconomic issues and the rule of law. But Mizrahi’s selection of parties was also limited due to his fights with politicians in the past.
He pushed unsuccessfully for an indictment against Ariel Sharon when he was prime minister. In November 2004, when Kadima MK Gideon Ezra was internal security minister, he fired Mizrahi from his position as head of the police investigations unit for his role in a wiretapping scandal.
Then-attorney-general Elyakim Rubinstein wrote a 64-page report accusing Mizrahi of illegal wiretapping actions and recommended that police take disciplinary action against him.
Mizrahi also had a public fight with Lieberman, who called him anti-Semitic after Mizrahi began to investigate alleged ties between him and suspected members of the Russian mafia. In an Army Radio interview Wednesday, Mizrahi vowed to continue fighting Lieberman as a politician.
“Lieberman and Shas have to be removed to change the atmosphere and enable normal people to make decisions here,” Mizrahi said.
“It’s important to show that things can be done differently and that alongside the [Ze’ev] Elkins, [Ophir] Akunises and Anastasia [Michaeli]s, there be someone there [in the Knesset] who is more like me.”