Israel, Government-Justice clash on the Head of Shin Bet

Without wanting to, and indeed opposing, Ronen bar made history in Israel: He became the The first head of the Shin Bet to be fired by the government. The 59 -year -old had become the ‘black beast’ for the right executive by Benjamin Netanyahu who in the night voted compactly to chase him. The announcement already last week had triggered vast square protests with clashes, and thousands of them again challenged the rain, as in the previous days, to express against the decision.

The parties of opposition presented a petition to the Supreme Court, obtaining a temporary order that blocks The dismissal of bar up to the hearing on the matter. But his future remains uncertain and has opened a new clash between the political leaders and the judicial system. The Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, in fact replied by intimating the judiciary not to interfere: “This is the government’s authority, your order is null”. While the far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, just returned to the government, addressed a dry appeal to implement “the reform of justice immediately!”.

And on Sunday it could be the turn of Prosecutor General Gali Baharav-Tremara To be expelled: the Minister of Justice Yariv Levin presented a request to vote of no confidence, claiming that “under his guide, the office of the attorney general has become a tyrannical political authority, which acts as the long opposition arm”. In the motion, its inappropriate behavior and the existence of substantial and prolonged disagreements that create a situation that prevents effective cooperation “with the Government is denounced”.

Former member of the Elite Unit of the Army Sayeret Matkal (such as the Premier), Bar joined the Intelligence Agency in 1993 after obtaining degrees in Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv and a Master in the Public Administration in Harvard. Bar, who speaks Arabic, started as a field officer in the operational unit of the Shin Bet, taking part in numerous operations in the Gaza Strip, in West Bank and Lebanon.

In 2011, he was appointed head of the operational division and assumed the responsibility of the mission that led to the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, a leader of the military wing of Hamas. Three years later, he led the research operations of three teenage colonists kidnapped in the West Bank and hunting their killers after finding the bodies. In 2018 the then government of Naftali Bennett was promoted as number two of the agency and at the end of 2021 promoted it to the guidance of the Shin Bet for a five -year mandate.

A year later the frictions with Netanyahu were born, returned to office as a premier thanks to the alliance with the ultra -Orthodox and above all the far -right parties, for the first time in power in Israel. Bar entered on a collision course with the Minister for National Security and far right leader, Itamar Ben-Givir and has punchedThe finger at the controversial attitude and work of the police under its control, which creates resentment among the Palestinian residents in the old city and to Jerusalem Est.

Among the friction points, the incendiary declarations of the leader of Otzma Yehudit and its multiple visits to the Mount of the Temple, for Muslims the esplanade of the mosques, a sacred place for both religions, highly sensitive and epicenter of clashes. In March 2023, during the peak of the vast popular protests against the justice reform project strongly promoted by the government, Bar warned Netanyahu that there was a connection “between the threats to security and the social situation in Israel”. Words that have marked his relationship with the premier.

Icing on the cake, its denunciation of “Jewish terrorism” That it did not like the political leaders of the country: in August 2024, Bar wrote a letter addressed to the premier and ministers, denouncing the terrorism of the colonists in the West Bank now out of control.

To aggravate the situation between bar and Netanyahu the internal relationship on the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, presented at the beginning of this month, has arrived. In the document, the Shin Bet took responsibility for the failure of security but also underlined how the policy carried out against the Palestinian group – primarily by Netanyahu in the last 15 years – has allowed Hamas’ military strengthening “, with harmful consequences.

Finally, the tombstone for bar was The investigation launched by the Intelligence Agency internal on the so -called Qatargate, the scandal on the alleged payments by Doha to councilors linked to the premier. Netanyahu immediately attempted to minimize the situation, liquidating investigations as “founding”.

“The reprehensible collaboration between the Deep State and the Media is anti -democratic and will not be successful,” said Knesset at the beginning of March. Ten days later he announced his intention, unprecedented, to fire the head of the Shin Bet, claiming that he had created “a growing lack of trust, professional and personal” who prevented the collaboration and put at risk the safety of the country.

Accusation rejected to the sender as a bar, who in a defensive letter delivered last night to the government, gathered to vote for his expulsion, denounced the “personal interests” of Netanyahu, pointing the finger at “unfounded statements that are nothing more than a coverage for completely different reasons, foreign and basically not valid”. In the letter, Bar also accused the premier of having sabotaged the negotiations for the release of the hostages and of adopting measures that weaken the country “both internally and against its enemies”.

Already at the announcement of his dismissal, last week, Bar defended himself by emphasizing that his “duty of loyalty is primarily towards Israeli citizens. The expectation of the Prime Minister of a duty of personal loyalty, whose purpose contradicts the public interest, is a fundamentally illegitimate expectation” and “contrary to the law of Shin Bet and its values”.

Bar had also supported “the need to investigate”, regarding October 7, “all parties, including government policy and prime minister, and not only the IDF and Shin Bet”. Netanyahu has so far opposed the establishment of a state commission with the motivation that there will be time at the end of the war to investigate, claiming that now the committee would be politicized and the “results already determined”. But with a premonition of how it would end, the head of the Shin Bet had reiterated: “If I do not insist on this, with all the personal price that I will pay, I will fail in my role of guaranteeing state security”.