Knesset Approves Final Bill to Separate the Police Investigations Unit from the State Attorney’s Office

The Knesset plenum approved in its second and third readings the law on the Police Internal Investigations Department, known as Mahash, which passed its second and third readings in the Knesset overnight Wednesday. The new law will sever the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers from the State Attorney’s Office and place it under the Justice Minister.

The proposal calls for establishing the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers as an independent body within the Justice Ministry, with a separate budget, and authorizing it to investigate and prosecute police officers for criminal offenses, including minor offenses. It also proposes a new mechanism for appointing the department head through a dedicated search committee, and creating a position of coordinator for police-investigation matters, who will be empowered to decide disputes between Mahash and other investigative and prosecutorial bodies and, where appropriate, order that cases be transferred between them.

In addition, the proposal seeks to separate Mahash from the Attorney General’s advisory system, so that the criminal powers currently held by the attorney general or the State Attorney’s Office in cases handled by Mahash will be transferred to the department head. Appeals against Mahash decisions to close a case will be submitted to the coordinator. According to the proposal, the department will be subject to the general guidelines of the attorney general and the State Attorney, except where those guidelines assign authority to an external body. The proposal also includes amendments concerning the full civilianization of Mahash, and as a result, provisions regarding Mahash employees’ access to police information systems.

The sponsor of the proposal, MK Moshe Saada, said: "Today we are carrying out a reform. This is a day of good news for all the people of Israel, in which we are correcting the law enforcement system. There will be no more criminals in the service of the law, there will be no people above the law. In the State of Israel, everyone will be equal before the law. There is currently no dispute that Mahash is not functioning and must undergo change. This system has strayed from its moral path. The law will restore public trust in the justice system."

The explanatory notes to the proposal said: "In recent years, reports by the State Comptroller, the annual reports of the Public Defender’s Office, as well as a report by the government team established to examine the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers, published in February 2025, pointed to flaws in the systemic handling of police offenses. Among other things, the majority opinion of the said government team, which dealt with this issue, emphasized the difficulty arising from Mahash’s subordination to the State Attorney’s Office, and the close connection between the State Attorney’s Office and the police, and therefore recommended separating the department from subordination to the State Attorney’s Office and establishing it as an independent body."