On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was taking measures to ousted the director of the Shin Bet, the Israeli National Intelligence Agency, raising concerns among the critics who was trying to undermine his independence.
Netanyahu’s effort to fire Ronen Bar, the head of the powerful agency, underlined the long -standing tensions between the prime minister and the main members of the Israel security plant, who collided on the management of the war in Gaza.
The decision to pursue the resolution of the Signor Bar also came in the wake of the SHIN BET investigations on the accusations against different helpers of Netanyahu, including the one presumably leaked a secret document to a foreign newspaper.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu had informed Mr. Bar that a draft resolution for his expansion would be presented to the Israeli cabinet this week for approval.
But in a letter, Gali Baharav-Tamara, the attorney general, said that Mr. in Netanyahu was not allowed to start the trial until a determination was taken on the legality of the closure of the Signor Bar. He said there were concerns that it would be a conflict of interest for Mr. Netanyahu.
The members of the coalition of Mr. Netanyahu asked the Prime Minister to shoot Mr. Bar for what they say is his prime minister’s mina. They also asked to fire Mrs. Baharav-Ciara, who long had a relationship stretched with Mr. Netanyahu.
Any decision to remove Mr. Bar, who has led the agency since 2021, would probably also be challenged to the Supreme Court.
In a recorded video published on social media, Netanyahu said that the dismissal was necessary because he did not trust Mr. Bar.
“At any time – especially during an existential war like this – there must be a complete trust between the Prime Minister and the Director of the bet Shin,” he said.
Mr. Bar replied with a strongly formulated public declaration, stating that Mr. Netanyahu’s expectation of “personal trust” was in opposition to the interests of the public.
“It is a fundamentally imperfect expectation that is in violation of the law and the Shin Bet statesman,” he said in a rare public declaration.
Mr. Bar said he previously told Mr. Netanyahu that he has planned to remain in his assignment until the return of all the hostages held in Gaza and the completion of a series of sensitive investigations. He also said he wanted to finish preparing two people who described as candidates to succeed him.
The move to stop Mr. Bar followed the removal in the last months of two other security leaders who were often in contrast with the Prime Minister: the Minister of Defense and the head of the staff of the Israeli army.
The former members of the Shin Bet raised concerns about the possibility that Mr. Netanyahu named a successor of Mr. Bar based on political considerations.
“Israeli democracy is in Crash,” said Ami Ayalon, former head of the bet Shin. If the prime minister manages to ousted Mr. Bar, he would be “another step to transform Israel into a state that gives priority to personal loyalty to the leader especially,” he said.
This month, the Shin Bet advertised a summary of its investigation into the bankruptcies of the Agency before and during the attack led by Hamas in October 2023 which was critical both for the government of Netanyahu and on the agency. While the summary recognized that the Shin Bet had not been able to provide a warning of the attack, claimed to have warned that Hamas had not been discouraged in the previous months and had recommended to act against the militant group.
The report also states that the Shin Bet had informed the government that the political divisions in Israel had encouraged its opponents, putting the country in a vulnerable position. This discovery was widely seen as aiming for a finger at the government of Mr. Netanyahu, who had pushed a controversial judicial revision that divided the Israeli public.