Judge freezes firing of intel chief who's investigating Netanyahu's aides
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv on March 12. Photo: Yair Sagi/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
A Supreme Court judge on Friday issued an injunction freezing the dismissal of the Shin Bet director until a hearing can be held on the matter, hours after Israel's cabinet voted unanimously to dismiss him.
Why it matters: The vote to fire Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's most powerful security agency, was unprecedented. No government in Israel's history has ever before sought to remove someone from the position.
- The Cabinet's dismissal decision dramatically escalates the domestic political and constitutional crises in Israel.
- With the court's injunction, Netanyahu will face a decision on whether to abide by the ruling. Many of his critics believe he could refuse to do it.
The big picture: The Cabinet decision comes as the agency investigates two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's advisers for allegedly receiving payments from Qatar during the Israel-Hamas war.
- Netanyahu's long-expected move to remove Bar with Cabinet approval raised concerns among his political foes that he would replace the ousted intel chief with a loyalist and politicize the organization, potentially weaponizing it against his political opponents and critics, or to crack down on the protest movement against him.
- The Cabinet decision was made against the legal opinion of the attorney general. Opposition parties said they would appeal to Israel's Supreme Court to halt and overturn the decision.
Driving the news: Netanyahu announced on Sunday his intention to fire Bar, claiming he can't trust him. A day later, Israel resumed its war in Gaza with Bar sitting in the operations room commanding the airstrikes against Hamas.
- On Tuesday, more than 40,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu's plan to fire Bar. On Wednesday, the same number of people demonstrated in Jerusalem against the move.
- Several hours, later two of Netanyahu's advisers were interrogated again over the allegations that they received payments from Qatar during the war in return for improving the state's image in Israeli public opinion. They are suspected of having contacts with a foreign agent and money laundering.
- On Thursday night as the cabinet convened, thousands of protesters demonstrated in the rain for hours outside the prime minister's office.
- Former Israeli Supreme Court president Aharon Barak said in several TV interviews on Thursday that the government has no grounds to fire the director of Shin Bet.
- He added he is extremely concerned that the government's moves are bringing the country closer to a civil war.
What's next: According to the cabinet decision, Bar will finish his term on April 10 or when his successor is appointed — whichever comes first.
The big picture: Netanyahu is on trial in three cases of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
- He has also started taking steps to fire the attorney general tasked with prosecuting those cases.
- Netanyahu's aides have said he was inspired by President Trump's purging of "the deep state" and his decision to appoint loyalists to all key posts.
What they're saying: Bar didn't attend the cabinet meeting, but shortly before it started he sent the ministers a four-page letter pushing back on the accusations against him and claiming his dismissal is driven by political motives that will harm the Shin Bet's ability to function.
- "A complex, extensive, and highly sensitive investigation is currently underway into Qatar's involvement in the Prime Minister's Office. I consider completing the investigation in full and striving for the truth to be a public duty of the highest order," Bar wrote.
- He stressed that undermining the investigation "through a hasty and sudden impeachment attempt, based on fundamentally unfounded grounds, is entirely steeped in extraneous considerations and a personal and institutional conflict of interest."
- Bar added that his dismissal at this time, at the initiative of the prime minister "sends a message to all those involved that could jeopardize the optimal outcome of the investigation. This is a direct threat to the security of the State of Israel."
- He claimed that since the beginning of the war, Netanyahu ordered him not to meet in private with cabinet ministers — an order he claimed was likely illegal.
- Bar stressed that Netanyahu's decision several weeks ago to remove him from the Israeli negotiations team on the Gaza hostage deal harmed the efforts to release the hostages.
The other side: Netanyahu said during the Cabinet meeting that he lost his trust in Bar following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
- "It all started during that night. I don't have the trust that he will talk to me in decisive moments," Netanyahu told the ministers, according to a statement his spokesman released.
- During the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu's aides briefed reporters and peddled a conspiracy theory that has been popular among the prime minister supporters since the beginning of the war: that Bar knew of the Oct. 7 attack hours in advance but didn't wake up Netanyahu to alert him.
Editor's note: This story was updated with additional reporting and developments.
