Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to use the country’s intelligence agency for his and the government’s benefit, including by requesting surveillance on anti-government protesters, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar wrote in a sworn affidavit to the High Court.
The accusations are some of the most severe leveled by Bar against the Israeli prime minister, with whom he’s clashed over taking responsibility for the failure to prevent an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 and the handling of hostage negotiations. Netanyahu tried to fire Bar last month, though Israeli courts have suspended the decision.
“I was required to provide details regarding the identities of Israeli citizens, protest activists and was expected to monitor ‘protest financiers’,” Bar wrote in a document submitted on Monday.
Netanyahu’s office denied the accusations, saying Bar “submitted a false affidavit to the Supreme Court today, which will be refuted in detail in the near future,” according to a statement.
The written statement comes as the court deals with multiple petitions challenging Bar’s ousting. These claim the move was illegal due to a conflict of interest on the prime minister’s part and the fact that it’s unsubstantiated.
Bar implies Netanyahu sought to politicize the Shin Bet – whose mandate focuses on preventing terrorist attacks and acts of espionage – as a way to strengthen his grip on power.
Netanyahu, according to Bar, asked for his signature in a statement saying the prime minister couldn’t testify in his corruption trial. And there was an expectation that the agency would back the government in case it chose not to abide by future high court rulings.
In the event of a constitutional crisis, the Shin Bet “must obey the Prime Minister and not the High Court,” Bar said of Netanyahu’s demand, adding it was made with only the two of them present. Netanyahu had “the clear intention that the exchange would not be documented,” Bar added.
In a statement, the prime minister’s office denied that Netanyahu asked to postpone the trial. “On the contrary, he insisted on holding his trial without further delays.”
Israel was engulfed in escalating political, social and political turmoil for much of 2023, when Netanyahu’s proposed changes on the judiciary branch triggered the country’s largest ever protests. Outcry over the attempt to weaken checks on the government’s actions was overtaken by the war in Gaza with militant group Hamas — which the US and many others designed as terrorist.
The intelligence chief said for the first time he will soon announce when he expects to step down, a decision likely to supersede a court ruling on petitions against his ousting.
The clash comes amid peaking tensions between Israel’s executive and judiciary branches, with some fearing the government would not abide by a ruling to keep Bar in office.
In the written statement, Bar repeated earlier claims that the mistrust on which Netanyahu decided to fire him resulted from a refusal to pledge loyalty to the government, as well as a Shin Bet investigation into ties between the prime minister’s close aides and Qatar.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
