More than half of Israelis believe that the government must obey the High Court’s decision to halt the dismissal of Ronen Bar from his duties as Shin Bet head, according to a survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI).
On Tuesday morning, the High Court heard petitions against the firing of Ronen Bar after recently issuing an order to halt his firing.
This has led Israelis across the political spectrum to respond in a variety of ways.
Among these responses is the fact that the court was overstepping and did not have the authority, claiming that the government is not obligated to obey the court’s decision, while others say the opposite.
Among the Jewish public, 54% believe that the government must obey the court’s ruling on the matter, while 36% disagree. Among Israel’s Arab population, 71% believe that the government must comply, compared to only 8% that believe the court should not.
The survey
In this survey, the Jewish population is broken down into Left, Center, and Right. The majority of Israelis, including findings from the Left and Center, believe that the government must follow the court’s ruling. 96% of the Left and 73% of the Center believe that the government needs to obey the High Court’s decision.
In contrast, on the Right, the majority believe that the government does not need to obey the court’s ruling, with only 32% agreeing and 56% disagreeing.
The breakdown of the respondents, based on a breakdown vote for the 2022 Knesset election, shows that none of Israel’s right-wing parties have pushed in favor of the High Court; both the Likud and Religious Zionist parties were not leaning in favor of the court.
The survey was conducted between March 31 and April 6, 2025, interviewing 598 men and women in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic. All respondents were above the age of 18, according to the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed Bar of his intention to fire him on March 16, citing a “lack of trust,” while Bar said the reasons for firing him were baseless.
At the heart of the matter are questions of conflict of interest on the part of the prime minister, due process or a lack thereof, and a broader disagreement of what a functioning democracy looks like and where the power splits fall.
Sarah Ben Nun contributed to this report.
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.