Conflict of interest agreements exposed: 22 relatives of a police officer serve in the organization
Documents obtained by the Ometz organization have revealed an unprecedented scale of nepotism within the Israel Police. Brigadier General Ronen Ovadia holds the record, with 22 relatives serving in the force.
An unprecedented snapshot of the employment of relatives in the police has reached Calcalist, through conflict of interest agreement documents signed by a series of senior Israel Police officers. The documents were received in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by the Ometz organization, and more are expected to be revealed soon.
The record holder for relatives in the organization, among the conflict of interest agreements provided to Ometz, is Brigadier General Ronen Ovadia, who serves as Deputy Commander of the Jerusalem District. According to his declaration, as of December 2024, 22 of his relatives are employed in the police and the Border Police (Magav), including five of his children, two sons-in-law, his sister, two nephews, a brother-in-law, and eight cousins. The agreement also reveals that the placement of some of the family members under his command was considered a "tangle" within the Jerusalem area.
Civil service rules prohibit subordinate relationships between family members, with the definition of a family member being very broad and including grandchildren or nephews. In exceptional cases where subordination might arise, a transfer from the position to another unit in the same government body is carried out. For example, two of Brigadier General Ovadia's sons-in-law served at the time of the declaration as officers within the district. Because of this, the police committed to working to transfer both sons-in-law to positions outside the Jerusalem District, and until then, the Deputy District Commander was prohibited from dealing with their affairs or their disciplinary matters.
Gray employment area
In addition, the continued employment of family members under the same officer is not permitted. Questions arise regarding the gray area, where a "parallel" officer employs family members in the bureau. In the case of Ovadia's sister, she served at that time as the secretary to the head of the Jerusalem Central Unit (Yamar), and regarding her as well, Ovadia committed not to deal with her affairs except with the approval of his commander. Five of Ovadia's children are also in the police, including a child in the digital team of the police spokesperson's unit, and a daughter serving as an organizational leadership consultant for the National Police College.
The phenomenon does not stop at the blue police and is clearly evident in the Border Police. Brigadier General Golan Sharoni, commander of the Magav Operations Brigade, declared 10 relatives serving in the organization, seven of whom are within Magav itself, as of the beginning of 2025. Another senior officer in Magav, Brigadier General Niso Gueta, declared that his son and nephew both serve as mandatory police officers in the Magav tactical brigade, alongside his daughter's partner in Lahav 433. In total, in the police and Magav, nearly 80 relatives of 21 senior officers with the rank of Colonel and above were reported.
Sensitive work interfaces
Alongside family ties, the conflict of interest agreements also reveal sensitive interfaces with the private sector and parallel government bodies. Retired Brigadier General Dado Zamir, who served as head of the police prosecution division, revealed that he was personally represented in legal proceedings by the Bartal-Cohen & Co. law firm. Following the representation, as head of the prosecution division, he was prevented from handling or viewing police databases in any case involving the defense firm. In another case, the former Jerusalem District Commander, retired Commissioner Amir Arzani, was prevented from dealing with firearms issues with the Ministry of National Security, because his sister held the position of head of the firearms division in the government ministry overseeing police work.
The Israel Police stated: "In cases where the authorized bodies in the organization approved the employment of family members in the same unit, in accordance with the necessity of the joint employment, conflict of interest agreements are signed with full transparency."
