Tel Aviv’s police chief announced his resignation today, denouncing political interference in his work by Benjamin Netanyahu’s ministers, who he said wanted to violently suppress anti-government protests.

Ami Essed did not name Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who had called for a crackdown on protesters blocking roads during demonstrations against the controversial judicial reform.

At a press conference, Essed said that he could not meet the expectations of the “ministerial echelon”, which – as he pointed out – violated the regulation and directly interfered in decision-making.

“I could easily meet those expectations by resorting to the use of gratuitous violence that would overwhelm the Emergency Departments” of hospitals, he noted. “For the first time in three decades of service, I encountered absurd claims. Instead of ensuring calm and order, they asked me for the exact opposite,” said the outgoing Tel Aviv police director.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who in March informed Essed that he would be giving him a new role (in order to scuttle his ambitions to become police chief, according to analysts), said in a tweet that the comments of the outgoing police chief of Tel Aviv were politically motivated.

Known for his extreme positions, Ben Gvir is among the hardliners in the Netanyahu government who believe that the police treat anti-government protesters more favorably than ultra-Orthodox Jewish and settler demonstrations.