Court upholds freeze on Shin Bet chief firing, but lets PM interview for replacement
Ruling by Justice Canfy-Steinitz rejects AG’s request that the court prevent the government from actively pursuing a successor for Ronen Bar
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it will start interviewing replacements for Shin Bet head Ronen Bar on Wednesday, after the High Court on Tuesday extended a freeze on the spy chief’s ouster but scrapped a prohibition on the premier talking to candidates for the agency’s leadership.
The ruling by Justice Gila Canfy-Steinitz rejected Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s request that the court prevent the government from interviewing potential Shin Bet heads or appointing an interim one. The statement by Netanyahu’s office did not indicate if the premier would appoint an interim Shin Bet chief.
The ruling lets Netanyahu choose a candidate to lead the Shin Bet, but not to replace Bar.
The government voted Thursday night to fire Bar amid mass protests against the move.
Netanyahu said he had lost faith in the Shin Bet chief following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Baharav-Miara warned that the ouster faced legal difficulties, in part due to an ongoing Shin Bet probe of alleged ties between Netanyahu’s top aides and Qatar, which backs Hamas.
On Friday, Canfy-Steinitz issued a temporary injunction against Bar’s ouster. Following the injunction, Baharav-Miara — whom the government is also seeking to remove from her post — told Netanyahu he was legally prohibited from appointing a new head of the Shin Bet, or even conducting interviews for the job, including an interim head.
Responding to the injunction on Monday, the government said it could not be forced to work with a Shin Bet chief it does not trust. The government also rejected Baharav-Miara’s claim that it had a conflict of interest, arguing that the decision to fire Bar was made before the Qatar probe began.
The government added in a submission to the court on Tuesday that it was critical for national security to start the search for Bar’s successor. It said the search would take some two weeks.
In her ruling on Tuesday, Canfy-Steinitz said she “did not see fit” to extend her original injunction to include Baharav-Miara’s requested ban on “interviews for a new Shin Bet head or appointment of a caretaker.”
However, Canfy-Steinitz said she would uphold the halt on Bar’s ouster, “amid the near date” by which the government has been ordered to respond to petitions against the move.
Four opposition parties and several NGOs have petitioned the High Court against Bar’s ouster due to the government’s alleged conflict of interest.
The court has scheduled an April 8 hearing on the petitions, and ordered the government to respond to the motions at least 72 hours before the hearing.
Canfy-Steinitz is not on the panel set to hear the petitions. The panel comprises Justice Daphne Barak-Erez, Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg and Chief Justice Isaac Amit, whom the government has boycotted after he acceded to the role in February despite the opposition of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Bar’s predecessors have argued that Netanyahu could endanger Israeli democracy by installing a loyalist atop the Shin Bet.
Bar himself has vowed to stay on as Shin Bet chief until the return of all hostages from Gaza and the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught, which the government opposes. He refused to attend the vote on his ouster, and instead sent a letter accusing the government of seeking to stifle Shin Bet investigations.
Lazar Berman and Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
