Last week (4-8.6.2023) the Knesset State Control Committee discussed three of the reports published by the State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, during the past year.
The July 2022 special report, which examined policing and law enforcement in the mixed cities during operation Guardian of the Walls, stood at the center of an extensive discussion, which was attended by Police Commissioner Major General Yaakov Shabtai and the Director-General of the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman Yishai Vaknin.
"This is a comprehensive and systematic report", said Vaknin. "I think that beyond the observation of the Guardian of the Walls events, the objective is to look to the future. We would not be deluding ourselves to say that events such as these can occur during the coming period or in the next year - and so we must see that we are drawing conclusions".
At the start of the discussion Yuval Hayu, Director of the Government Ministries and Institutions Audit Division, presented the report's findings alongside the Audit Directors Moshe Samo, Ofir Kavia-Giladi, Yossi Gendler and Gilad Stessman: "The threat that came true in May 2021 was part of the national and police threat attribution. The police was supposed to plan for it and it even prepared a plan for this matter. In practice, the police actions did not supply the solution for such threat which had been defined and assimilated into the national and police threat attribution documents".
Hayu added that "The police's and the ISA's intelligence array did not provide a warning against the Guardian of the Walls events. The report indicates gaps in intelligence cover and gaps and weaknesses in research and intelligence assessment pertaining to the riots. A central system in the police for network monitoring, which was supposed to provide a response, did not operate when the events broke out". Hayu noted that following the State Comptroller's report's findings, "We understand that some of the fields that I am detailing have very significant reforms which are being implemented in the past year and at this very moment".
"The Guardian of the Walls events taught us that there is a problem with the police's ability to provide a response to serious multiple-front events. Without a resource solution, with emphasis on the manpower aspect, the Israel Police will apparently not be able to generate the change in this matter", he summed up. "There is also liability of the ministerial rank here, for a future solution which will be supplied in this matter, from the aspects of making decisions on resources - to give the police the tools it needs to do its job".
Police Commissioner Shabtai said that "I accept everything that the Comptroller has said here. There is no doubt that we have been caught on a level of intelligence preparedness which did not provide a response. There was no warning with regard to the possibility that we could reach such a spiral in such a short period of time. The police has come a long way since then, we are presently in a different place".
The Knesset members also discussed (5.6.2023) the report published by the State Comptroller in May 2023, concerning the placement of at-risk children in boarding schools, foster care and adoption. The main points of the report were presented by Benny Goldman, Director of Department P in the Social Welfare Audit Division, together with his deputy Michal Lilach-Mevorach and the writers of the report, Dr. Liron Nathan and Dr. Naama Katzin-Moskovitch. The findings showed, among other things, that only 10% of the children who had been removed from their home returned to it after rehabilitation.
"For the first time in the State of Israel, as far as I know, in this report, we have taken data and examined what is actually happening to a child where it has been decided to place him in boarding schools", said Goldman. "What will happen to him when he becomes an adult and what will happen to the child who has been placed in foster care or has been adopted".
An analysis of the data of about 1.6 million children who were removed from their homes over the years showed that children who grew up in boarding schools reached lower achievements as adults. "The chances of a girl in a boarding school to give birth to a baby before the age of 17 are five times greater than a girl in the general population", said Katzin-Moskovitch.
In the matter of adoption by same-sex couples, Nathan noted that according to data from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, "From 2013 to 2021 seven out of the 835 children who were adopted in Israel - less than one percent - were given to same-sex couples".
The following day (7.6.2023) the Committee reconvened - this time in the shadow of the extensive power outage which had occurred a few days before, which affected hundreds of thousands of consumers.
The Director of the Economics and National Infrastructures Audit Division, Tzachi Saad, and the Audit Director Sammy Kahoonay, presented the findings of the November 2022 report concerning the conservation and conversion of coal-fired power stations. The report stipulated that the projects for conversion of the coal-fired units to gas are critical for the supply of electricity during the coming decade and they should be promoted as fast as possible.
Another discussion, which was held mostly behind closed doors, dealt with the military censorship of the press and media in the digital age. The Office of the State Comptroller was represented at the discussion by the Director of the Defense Forces Audit Division, Eitan Dahan, and the Director of Department B in the Division, Shira Pachter-Arad.
