Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan gathered the police’s top officers Monday for a motivational talk following the suicide Sunday of Major General Efraim Bracha, who headed the National Unit for Fraud Investigations.
Bracha killed himself as journalists led by News1’s Yoav Yitzchak reported that he would soon be interrogated for serious offenses.
“When statements are made about policemen and officers, these statements cannot remain in the air, and an immediate, quick response to such publications is needed,” Erdan said. “If the publication is a lie, harsh measures need to be taken against that element, and if God forbid they are true, steps must be taken, but things should not be left dangling in the air.
“Police need to understand that they will be backed, and in the same breath, I wan’t to stress that the system will not cover for anyone who carries out ethical and criminal offenses,” he explained.
“The painful feelings that the last day has given rise to teach us that we are all human, and that even senior and tought officers who have served for decades in the police, who have interrogated th etoughest criminals, they too can be hurt, and that is why the top priority is to give each other backing. Friendship, camaraderie, mutual assistance are your weapons as officers and police, in the face of external elements.”
“When a body like the police mounts an uncompromising fight against crime, there are many interested bodies with financial ability that will try to confront the uncompromising activity of the police. It is especially in this context that your strength is in your unity,” Erdan urged.
Bracha had been under fire from investigative journalist Yoav Yitzchak, who claimed that police investigators intended to interrogate Bracha for unspecified crimes. Bracha had reported that a famous mystic, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, tried to bribe him in order to obtain details about an investigation against him.