MKs: Liberman blocking officers from testifying to Knesset

Opposition MKs Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) and Omer Bar Lev (Zionist Union) have been trying to summon Liberman for weeks, Channel 2 reported Wednesday.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: JUNE 13, 2018 21:05
Avigdor Liberman (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Avigdor Liberman
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has been blocking IDF officers from testifying before a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee subcommittee on a sensitive security matter related to Israel’s northern border, MKs on the committee alleged Wednesday night.
Opposition MKs Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) and Omer Bar Lev (Zionist Union) have been trying to summon Liberman for weeks, Channel 2 reported. The report revealed that Liberman met with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter on the matter but it remained unresolved.
“The defense system’s behavior has dealt a serious blow to the parliamentary oversight over the IDF, and it therefore harms both the security of the state and Israeli democracy,” Bar Lev wrote Edelstein.
The report revealed that before he became defense minister, Liberman himself co-sponsored a bill requiring officers to testify to the Knesset if summoned.
Liberman’s office said he was following long-standing procedures that were proven even more correct by the leak.