High Court rejects government bid to drop injunction against Shin Bet head’s ouster
Motion to unfreeze Ronen Bar’s dismissal, due to alleged conflict of interests in prosecution of leak from security agency, relies on legally inadmissible media reports, judges say
The High Court on Thursday rejected the government’s bid to unfreeze the ouster of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar due to his alleged conflict of interest stemming from the recent arrest of an agency official who leaked classified material to journalists and a cabinet minister.
Justices Isaac Amit, Daphne Barak-Erez and Noam Sohlberg said the request to unfreeze Bar’s ouster was based on media reports of the affair, “which by the nature of things can’t serve as a basis for a legal decision.”
The judges reiterated their position that judicial review of the move did not contradict the government’s authority in security-related matters.
They added that any further decision will be based on official statements regarding the Shin Bet official’s arrest, which was made public on Tuesday and sparked a wave of criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
The government voted late last month to oust the spy chief despite legal difficulties stemming from a Shin Bet probe of top aides to Netanyahu for alleged criminal ties with Hamas-backer Qatar. In a chaotic session on April 8, the High Court heard petitions against Bar’s ouster and issued a temporary injunction against the move, urging the sides to find a compromise.
Netanyahu has not indicated if he would respect the High Court’s orders. Some of his ministers have urged him to do so.
A request to nullify the injunction was submitted Wednesday by right-wing activist lawyer Yhuda Fuah, who is representing a slate of families whose loved ones were killed or abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
In an addendum to Fuah’s request, the government repeated its arguments against judicial review of a security-related personnel change, and accused Bar of employing “draconian means for personal and thoroughly partisan aims” by arresting the Shin Bet official. The motion also cited a recently published recording of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division chief saying he authorizes arrests of settlers without evidence.
In their ruling Thursday, the judges called it “regrettable that a request such as this” was not submitted by the government itself.
Responding to the Thursday ruling, Fuah accused the court of “again disregarding the parents of hostages and murder victims.”
“The argument that the request was based on media reports is ridiculous. The court’s injunction was based entirely on media reports,” wrote Fuah on X, apparently referring to reports of Shin Bet investigations. “You can’t serve an injunction based on media reports and then reject a request to annul the injunction because it’s based on media reports.”
“The court takes away the government’s ability to fire the Shin Bet head, and argues that the government’s authority is unharmed,” said Fuah.”I have difficulty understanding how three judges signed off on these paradoxes.”
Netanyahu announced in March that he would seek Bar’s ouster, citing a breakdown in trust after October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The dismissal sparked mass demonstrations, with opposition leaders accusing the long-time premier of seeking to offload his own responsibility for the shock assault.
Despite the animosity between them, Netanyahu invited Bar to participate in an over-the-phone security discussion on Wednesday evening, the Ynet news site reported, citing unnamed sources within the Prime Minister’s Office.
Bar’s apparent inclusion followed the cancellation of the previous evening’s scheduled security cabinet meeting about the war in Gaza and hostage negotiations, after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would not attend if Bar were invited.
The Times of Israel Community.