Levin allows Shin Bet final say on providing security to political party chiefs

Justice Minister Yariv Levin ruled that the Shin Bet will decide for itself whether to provide security for the heads of political parties ahead of the October 27 election, Hebrew media reported Wednesday.

According to the reports, Levin made the decision himself, after no other ministers showed up to the scheduled meeting of the ministerial committee overseeing Shin Bet affairs.

The decision will only apply to party leaders not already serving as lawmakers. Sitting members of Knesset are automatically granted security when elected.

This means that the only leaders who will be affected by the Shin Bet’s decision will be Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot, Democrats chair Yair Golan, and People of Israel chair Ofer Winter. B’Yachad chair Naftali Bennett, while not a sitting lawmaker, already receives security because he is a former prime minister.

The discussion around security details for civilian party leaders has become heated, and first arose amid a dispute over security for Eisenkot, a former IDF chief who is leading opinion polls ahead of the October 27 election.

Eisenkot’s party said it had sought state protection because threats against him were mounting as he emerged as a leading contender for prime minister during a bitter campaign.

According to the Ynet news site, Eisenkot’s campaign warned Zini that tensions and incitement were rising — both on the street and online — ahead of the election, and that physical threats to the candidate are “increasing every day.”

The Yashar leader’s son, Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Eisenkot, was killed in Gaza in December 2023. In August, the family visited his grave and discovered that someone had graffitied on the headstone: “Gal the fighter, it’s a shame your father doesn’t protect the soldiers.”

To address the threat, Eisenkot’s campaign initially hired private bodyguards but said they were inadequate while unarmed, particularly as he regularly attends public events whose locations and schedules were announced in advance.

The Shin Bet initially rejected his request for a security detail, with agency chief David Zini saying he was “solely responsible” for the decision, before ultimately reaching a compromise that would allow Eisenkot’s private security detail to carry weapons.

Later, the Advisory Committee for Personal Security, which operates under the Prime Minister’s Office, recommended that the Shin Bet provide security directly to Eisenkot. That sent the matter to the ministerial committee on the Shin Bet, prompting Wednesday’s decision.

The left-wing Democrats party has also requested a security detail for its leader, Yair Golan, saying that he has been at the receiving end of an influx of social media posts wishing him grievous bodily harm or death.

One such post cited by Hebrew media called for Golan to take “a bullet to the head,” while another called to “gouge out” his eyes, and claimed that he and his family deserved to be hanged because he “caused a second Holocaust to the Jewish people.”

Golan, a former deputy IDF chief, does not yet have security from the Shin Bet.