A senior Shin Bet official in charge of the Jewish Division was recorded referring to suspects in the West Bank as “shmucks” and claiming that they arrest individuals “even without evidence” for a few days, in a conversation that was leaked on KAN 11 on Saturday.
The controversial conversation also revealed the official instructing the Shai Unit commander, Superintendent Avishai Moalem, to “put them in detention cells, with rats.” Following the leak, Moalem was placed on forced leave.
During the conversation, the official of the Jewish Division further remarked, “We always want to arrest them for interrogation, as much as possible. Look at how the Shin Bet interrogations are conducted with them. We arrest these ‘shmucks’ even without evidence for a few days.” In response, Moalem cautioned, “They’ll tear us apart for this,” to which the division head assured, “It’s being handled by the Shin Bet Director’s Office with the defense minister.”
Details of the conversation
Moalem when asked what he was supposed to arrest the suspects for.
“First, you’d catch them in a car from [the Israeli settlement] Havat Gilad, maybe there’d be incendiary materials, maybe they smell like fuel,” responded the official. Moalem objected to the notion.
“We’ve been in this movie many times before, so how come there are no arrests?” the Shin Bet official added. “Why aren’t roadblocks set up? They come from Benjamin to Yitzhar, continue to Givat Zivi, and then to Havat Gilad. In every one of these places, you need to arrest them.
“The army doesn’t know,” he added. “It’s not the army; the army is in Lebanon and Gaza. It’s not the army, it’s a ‘chikmok’ (a derogatory term), it’s militias, it’s settlers themselves.”
By the time the conversation was leaked on KAN, neither Shin Bet nor the Israel Police had issued a response. Moalem is currently under suspicion in a case involving associates of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Moalem is accused of leaking classified information to Ben-Gvir and allegedly engaging in inappropriate conduct while managing crime in the West Bank. He is also suspected of attempting to influence his career advancement by taking unusual actions with another officer in the same district.
Further allegations include assisting in erasing the criminal record of a businessman in exchange for joining his wife’s business as a partner, failing to report suspicions of foreign terrorist attacks, and bribing a senior official. Moalem has denied all these charges.
Response by the Prime Minister’s Office
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a response, stating that the recording represents a “real threat to democracy.” They affirmed that the prime minister would demand a comprehensive investigation into the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division’s activities. “It is unacceptable in a rule of law for citizens to be arrested without evidence and placed in detention cells in an illegal and cruel manner. Such practices belong only in dark regimes where the secret service operates in a dangerous manner. There will be no shadow government within Israel.”
Shin Bet’s official statement
The Shin Bet responded by clarifying that the conversation pertains to suspected lawbreakers involved in terrorist activities, who allegedly took the law into their own hands. However, the security agency acknowledged that the tone and style of the conversation were inconsistent with Shin Bet’s professional values. As a result, the security agency will conduct an inquiry into the matter and present any findings to the agency’s future director.
They further emphasized, “Arrests of Israeli citizens suspected of terrorism are conducted only after thorough professional assessments and careful examination of intelligence information by relevant authorities, including senior officials. These actions are subject to independent judicial oversight. Nonetheless, this does not justify the language used during the conversation.”
Ben-Gvir Calls for dismissal of the Shin Bet official
Ben-Gvir condemned what was said in the leaked conversation, demanding the immediate dismissal of the Jewish Division official. “I will ask the Prime Minister to summon the Shin Bet chief for clarification. Under Ronen Bar, the Jewish Division in Shin Bet operated like a mafia, criminalizing settlers and using illegal tactics.
“They call the IDF soldiers from the West Bank ‘militias’ and fabricate cases against a distinguished police officer who rejected the Shin Bet’s mafia-like demands,” he added. This is the same division responsible for spying on the police and prison service. We must end such lawbreaking disguised as justice.”
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