Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar submitted his affidavit concerning his firing by the government to the High Court of Justice on Monday, just a few minutes before the 12 p.m. deadline. Portions of it are classified.
“To this day, the reason for my firing is not clear to me. But, the developments that took place over the last few months indicate one thing: At some point late last year, the decision to fire me was consolidated. It was not rooted in any professional metric, but out of an expectation by Netanyahu that I would be personally loyal to him,” Bar wrote.
This, he wrote, is what brought upon the decision to push him out, and came with a well-timed social media campaign against me and against the agency.
The government is set to submit its own affidavit defending its decision to fire Bar on Thursday.
“Ronen Bar submitted an affidavit of lies to the High Court of Justice today, which will be thoroughly refuted in the near future,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The affidavits are the result of a compromise push by the High Court of Justice, which heard arguments by the government, the attorney-general’s office, and petitioners, on the legality of Bar’s firing on April 8.
At the heart of the matter are two investigations that the intelligence agency is pursuing that affect the prime minister. The first is the leaked documents case, in which former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein leaked classified military documents to German daily Bild in an effort to sway public opinion on the hostage negotiations. The second, “Qatargate,” concerns Qatari influences and connections to Feldstein and aides Yonatan Urich and Israel Einhorn to better Qatar’s image in the eyes of the Israeli public.
Bar described a symbiotic, even positive relationship between the agency and Netanyahu – until November 2024, the date that he has consistently said marked the change in attitude, and which coincides with the leaking of the classified documents to Bild.
The government will submit its defense on Thursday
He also wrote that he refused to provide a legal opinion that would prevent Netanyahu from providing consistent testimony in his criminal trial hearings. He has said in the past that he found no security stringencies preventing Netanyahu’s consistent testimony.
He added that a draft of the Shin Bet’s October 7 probe was handed over to Netanyahu’s office. He described in it an admittance of the agency’s failure to prevent October 7, alongside the long-term policy it had when it comes to the Gaza Strip, as well as repeated warnings he wrote the agency provided to the political echelon, warnings that were ignored.
Further, he wrote, a classified document submitted with the affidavit outlines precisely how Hamas was built, brick by brick, right under Israel’s nose – made possible due to Qatari funding and a particular defense policy.
Bar noted his deep concern for the ability of the next intelligence chiefs to keep the agency professional and unbothered by outside pressures.
The affidavit came at a heavy price to Bar and to the Shin Bet, he wrote.
Bar wrote that requests that he received from the prime minister go directly against the power and wide range of abilities that the Shin Bet has. This spans a very particular set of dangers: illegal, secretive activities that have a potential for violence. Anything outside of this definition, he wrote, does not fall under the agency purview; if anything, it would go to the police.
He explained that in gray area situations where he and the agency wasn’t sure, it sought counsel with the Attorney-General’s Office to make sure that any action it does take would be limited to the very precise needs of the Shin Bet and not traverse beyond that.
Bar specified that these requests would be made by Netanyahu at the end of work meetings, after the military secretary and transcriber had left the room, so that there would be no record of the request.
Protests
The government charged on April 5 that Bar “refused to act against an organization’s plan to perpetuate mass service refusal within the IDF, rendering Israel’s defense threatened,” in a letter to the High Court.
“This represents perfectly the whole outlook taken by the government and by the prime minister regarding the powers of the Shin Bet and who it is supposed to serve,” wrote Bar.
Netanyahu told Bar several times that he expects the agency to operate against civilians involved in protest against the government and its policies.
Protests against the government began after Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced his contentious judicial reform legislation plans, continued through that, and instead took the form of hostage protests after October 7. Since then, the news of investigations have fueled some to view the government as having lost the right to represent the will of the people.
Bar noted that “it was made clear to me” that in the case of a judicial clash regarding the protest movement, the expectation was that Bar would be obedient to the prime minister, not to the High Court.
He further noted that the “lack of trust” that Netanyahu cited as the reason for the dismissal was only brought to his attention when it came up legally.
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