Before resigning, Israeli security official accuses Netanyahu of serious misconduct
May 5, 2025 6 Comments
VETERAN ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER Ronen Bar, who has led the Israeli Security Agency (ISA, more widely known as the Shin Bet) since 2021, has submitted an affidavit to Israel’s Supreme Court, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of serious misconduct. Netanyahu fired Bar in March, but the Supreme Court later suspended Bar’s firing.
Now Bar has submitted an open affidavit alongside a confidential one, alleging serious misconduct by Netanyahu, accusing him of attempting to use the ISA’s investigative powers against protestors and activists. He links this accusation to a number of conspiracies that are circulating in Israel, blaming the ISA for the October 7 intelligence failure. The veteran security official concludes his open affidavit by stating that he “will soon announce the date on which I will end my duties”. Last week, Bar said he would resign in June.
The ISA director also repeats earlier claims regarding the reasons behind Netanyahu’s statement that he “distrusts” him. Among other things, Bar claims that Netanyahu “expressed himself to me more than once in a way that sought to substantiate his expectation that the ISA should act against citizens involved in legal protest activities and demonstrations against the government”. Thus, Bar was asked to provide details about the identities of Israeli citizens, mostly 
protesting activists, because, according to Netanyahu, they were “following security targets”.
Furthermore, Bar claims he was asked to use the investigatory powers of the ISA to “monitor protest financiers”. He adds he was told during a conversation on the topic that, in the event of a constitutional crisis, he, as the head of the ISA, was required to take his orders from prime minister, and not from the High Court of Justice —another name for the Israeli Supreme Court. Bar notes that the full details of the matter will be provided to the Supreme Court in his confidential affidavit.
In his open affidavit, Bar clarifies that he established several criteria to address the question of whether the ISA should exercise its investigative powers without violating the constitutional right to protest. The criteria were largely based on the legal definition of subversion, defined as illegal activity involving clandestine aspects and has the potential for violence. According to Bar, actions that fail to meet this criterion are not a matter the ISA; rather, if any monitoring is warranted, the police should intervene in the interests of public order. “In borderline cases we consulted with the government’s legal counsel to ensure that the ISA’s broad powers would only be exercised within its designated framework and functions”, states Bar. He adds that “[t]he prime minister’s requests to act contrary to these criteria were refused. In quite a few cases, [Netanyahu] asked to discuss issues related to these issues at the end of working meetings, and after asking the military secretary and the typist, who operates the recording device, to leave the room with the clear goal that the exchange of words would not be recorded”. Read more of this post
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Israeli Supreme Court dismisses spy chief’s firing as illegal
May 23, 2025 by intelNews 4 Comments
Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit and Justice Dafna Barak-Erez were in the majority, with Supreme Court Vice President Noam Solberg in the minority. “The government’s decision [to fire Bar] is unprecedented in the history of the State of Israel,” they ruled. The legal advisor to the government, Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, requested that the court issue a verdict of principle regarding the relationship between a prime minister and the ISA. Her request followed an earlier request by government for the court to dismiss the petitions against the dismissal, claiming that they were no longer relevant.
Justice Amit ruled that “Israel’s security agencies, including the ISA, are responsible for maintaining the security of Israel, the security of its citizens, and the institutions of the state and the democratic regime. Their activities, roles, and powers make the security agencies a central component of the country’s governmental and legal foundations. Having been entrusted with the holiest of holies of the state, all heads of the security agencies —including the head of the ISA— owe a duty of loyalty to the public.”
According to Amit, “[t]he loyalty of the heads of the security apparatus is not a party-political loyalty to a particular government or personal loyalty to one or another prime minister. It is loyalty to the entire Israeli public, which has entrusted them with what is most precious: its life and its security. This duty of loyalty does not contradict the duty of the Shin Bet head to fulfill and promote government policy, but rather expresses the core principle of the fundamental commitment of all state authorities to the rule of law.”
Justice Amit added that, although the petitions were dismissed, as the dissenting judge, Justice Solberg, emphasized, there is still a need to create a deterrent against the government so that such cases do not recur. “The matter may repeat itself, and it is necessary to deter similar and inappropriate behavior in the future, in the sense of preempting a disaster,” he stated. “A question of legality or interpretation of a general norm arises.” Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Avner Barnea, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Zini, Israel Security Agency, Ronen Bar, Shin Bet