As Netanyahu clashes with Shin Bet chief, Palestinians face abuses by Israeli intelligence
In recent months, Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, has been the subject of personal attacks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as government ministers and rightwing Knesset members.
Netanyahu tried to fire Bar in March, citing a “lack of trust” in the Shin Bet chief but the move was obstructed by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The spat is now playing out in the court and on Monday Bar gave a statement describing the nature of his relationship with the prime minister.
In the statement, the vast majority of which is confidential, Bar wrote that Netanyahu demanded that "Shin Bet take action against citizens involved in protest and demonstration activities against the government".
The alleged demand by Netanyahu is in complete violation of Israeli law and exceeds the organisational jurisdiction of Shin Bet.
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Bar said that these requests came from Netanyahu in secret.
They came: "At the end of work meetings, and after he asked the military secretary and the typist - who operates the recording device - to leave the room with the clear goal that the conversation would not be recorded.”
Netanyahu has hit back furiously on X, alleging that "Ronen Bar's statement is full of lies and exposes his failures."
The Israeli leader added that Bar "failed miserably on October 7. This reason alone necessitates his dismissal from his post."
Settler anger
Further criticism of Bar from Israel’s right concerns the Shin Bet’s handling of settler terrorism in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier in April, Kan 11 published recordings of the head of the organisation's “Jewish division”, in which he states that the Shin Bet had detained Israeli settlers in administrative detention without evidence.
An outraged right attacked the organisation, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself.
He wrote that the Shin Bet was leading a "political and agenda-driven persecution of the settlers in Judea and Samaria”.
Another settler within the government, Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister of national security, wrote that the Shin Bet conduct "is a mafia conduct - illegal persecution of settlers”.
But the hyperbole has not gone without response within the opposite end of the Israeli political spectrum.
Last week, Guy Peleg, the legal affairs correspondent for Channel 12, Israel's leading channel, reminded Israelis who should actually be afraid of the Shin Bet.
"A stranger who landed here for a moment would have been attacked in horror," Peleg wrote facetiously regarding the right’s complaints of the secret service arresting people without evidence and without trial.
In practice, according to Peleg, "Israel has a prime minister who, according to the heads of the Shin Bet, sought to use the agency's draconian tools to Eavesdrop on the chief of staff and the head of the Mossad."
Peleg added that "the fact that some 3,700 Israeli Arabs and Palestinians are under administrative detention is less disturbing to Israeli society”.
Reality for Palestinians
During Israel's war on Gaza, settler attacks, often with military accompaniment, occur frequently throughout the occupied West Bank.
These attacks lead to the death of Palestinians, the destruction of homes and property, and looting by the settlers.
Peleg said that "contrary to what is claimed, and the impression that is being created, there is under-enforcement of Jewish terror in Israel."
Peleg called on the Israeli public to not "be afraid of the unrestrained power of the Shin Bet. Be afraid of the fear of restraining rampant Jewish terror”.
In addition to settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army launched a large-scale military operation there in January, intended, among other things, to erase the Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps.
As part of the large-scale operation, which has been ongoing since 19 January of this year, hundreds of homes have been demolished and 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced.
The Shin Bet, along with the IDF, is taking an active role in the operation, as well as in the fighting in Gaza.
Last week, Israel's Channel 7 reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu had instructed security forces to promote the demolition of the homes of Palestinian "terrorists" who injured Israelis, and not just those who killed Israelis.
According to the report, "this is a significant change from a procedure that has been in place for many years”.
Until now, Israel's policy regarding the demolition of homes of Palestinians accused of terrorism has only been in effect in cases in which Israelis were killed.
Now, according to the report, "homes can be demolished even in cases where the attack did not end in murder, as long as the injuries are of varying degrees of severity and serious terrorist incidents”.
One of the proponents of the change, Likud Knesset Member Amit Halevi, told Channel 7 that "this decision is another important step in a series of laws and actions that I am trying to promote under the guiding principle: an all-out war against terror's infrastructure, and not only its products”.
Last October, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he would consider demolishing the homes of Palestinian "terrorists" with Israeli citizenship in accordance with a demand made by Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Shin Bet opposed the idea and since then no progress has been reported on the proposal.
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