Israeli Supreme Court freezes dismissal of Shin Bet chief

JERUSALEM – Israel’s Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction on March 21 temporarily freezing the dismissal of the head of the domestic intelligence service, according to a ruling published on the court’s website.

The ruling will allow the court to consider petitions launched against the dismissal, with a decision no later than April 8, the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that he had lost confidence in Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and intended to dismiss him, prompting tens of thousands to join demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv this week protesting the sacking, which critics saw as an attempt to undermine key state institutions.

The Israeli Cabinet had voted early on March 21 to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service effective from April 10, the prime minister’s office said, after three days of protests against the move.

Mr Bar did not attend the Cabinet meeting but in a letter sent to ministers, said the process around his firing did not comply with rules and his dismissal was predicated on baseless claims. He said the decision to fire him was “entirely tainted by... conflicts of interest” and driven by “completely different, extraneous and fundamentally unacceptable motives”. 

Mr Bar had already announced that he intended to step down early to take responsibility for the intelligence lapses that failed to prevent the attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct 7, 2023.

Late on March 20, police fired water cannon and made numerous arrests as scuffles broke out during the protests in Tel Aviv and close to the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, where police said dozens of protesters tried to break through security cordons.

Over the past three days, demonstrators protesting against the move to sack Mr Bar have joined forces with protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, while 59 Israeli hostages remain in the Palestinian enclave.

“We’re very, very worried that our country is becoming a dictatorship,” Mr Rinat Hadashi, 59, said in Jerusalem. “They’re abandoning our hostages; they’re neglecting all the important things for this country.”

The decision followed months of tension between Mr Bar and Mr Netanyahu over a corruption investigation into allegations that a number of aides in the Prime Minister’s office were offered bribes by figures connected with Qatar.

Mr Netanyahu has dismissed the accusation as a politically motivated attempt to unseat him, but his critics have accused him of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel’s democracy by seeking Mr Bar’s removal.

The angry scenes on March 20 highlighted divisions that have deepened since Mr Netanyahu returned to power as head of a right-wing coalition at the end of 2022.

Even before the war in Gaza, tens of thousands of Israelis were joining regular demonstrations protesting against a government drive to curb the power of the judiciary that critics saw as an assault on Israeli democracy, but which the government said was needed to limit judicial overreach.

On March 20, Mr Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff in the military who now leads the opposition Democrats party, was pushed to the ground during a scuffle, drawing condemnation and calls for an investigation by other opposition politicians.

Former defence minister Benny Gantz said the clashes were a direct result of divisions caused by “an extremist government that has lost its grip”.

Since the start of the war, there have also been regular protests by families and supporters of hostages seized by Hamas during the Oct 7 attack that have sometimes echoed the criticisms of the government.

With the resumption of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the fate of 59 hostages, as many as 24 of whom are still believed to be alive, remains unclear and protesters said a return to war could see them killed either by their captors or accidentally by Israeli bombardments.

“This is not an outcome the Israeli people can accept,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing hostage families, said in a statement. REUTERS