Contradicting Netanyahu, AG says Ronen Bar has authority to probe Shin Bet official’s comments

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar does have full authority to investigate recent comments by the agency’s Jewish Division that he had a policy of arresting and detaining radical settler youths without evidence, contradicting the premier’s earlier comments.

Earlier today, Netanyahu said that the Shin Bet chief, who was fired by the government from his position last month, is “barred from investigating” the Jewish Division head because he was personally involved in the policy because he “authorizes every arrest of a Jew.”

Baharav-Miara tells Netanyahu that Bar has “all the powers given to him, including in the field of investigation and command clarification.”

She also points out that High Court of Justice suspended Bar’s dismissal pending hearings and a decision on petitions against the government’s firing of the agency head, saying that Netanyahu’s comment would “empty of content the judicial decision.”

The attorney general adds that the head of the Jewish Division’s comments do need “deep and urgent” investigation, as Bar has himself stated.