Independent Police Investigations Unit Begins Separation from State Prosecution
Implementation of the law creating an independent Police Internal Investigations Department, known as Machash, has begun days after the Knesset approved it. The new unit will be separated from the State Attorney’s Office and will fall under the Justice Ministry, not under the state prosecutor or the attorney general.
Justice Ministry director general Itamar Donenfeld has already started forming the selection committee for the first department head. Under the law, the committee, officially called the panel to choose the head of the Police Investigations Department, will be chaired by Donenfeld and include a retired Supreme Court or district court judge chosen by the Knesset State Control Committee chair, MK Alon Schuster, a criminal lawyer appointed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a person with experience in criminal investigations or prosecutions appointed by the civil service commissioner in consultation with Donenfeld, and the civil service commissioner or a representative.
The department head must be eligible to serve as a judge and have investigative experience. The term will be six years, though the committee may end it early. The law also requires a special coordinator, a retired district or Supreme Court judge, to settle disputes over investigative jurisdiction between Machash and other law enforcement bodies, also for six years.
The reform transfers investigative authority over police officers, and also Shin Bet personnel, to the new Machash. It will be able to open investigations and file indictments independently, without relying on the attorney general or the state prosecutor, who until now held the final say. The explanatory notes said recent reports by the State Comptroller, the Public Defender’s Office and a government team found serious flaws in how police offenses were handled, and in a February 2025 report the team recommended making Machash an independent body. MK Moshe Saada, the bill’s sponsor, called the law a “reform” and said it would restore public trust in the justice system.
