Ex-Shin Bet chief files declaration to High Court on illegitimate Netanyahu efforts to use security agency

Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen files a declaration to the High Court of Justice detailing what he said were two attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have him use his powers within the domestic security agency for illegitimate purposes.

The filing is submitted to the High Court by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, as supporting evidence for its petition against the controversial decision by Netanyahu and the government to fire current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

Cohen, who served as head of the Shin Bet from 2011 to 2016, says that, in 2013, Netanyahu asked him to use intelligence tools to monitor anyone who was party to knowledge of an impending Israeli operation in a hostile country until the operation was completed.

Cohen says he declined, telling Netanyahu it was inappropriate for the Shin Bet to use tools designed for spying missions and to prevent terror attacks against “hundreds” of members of Israel’s intelligence agencies, including their heads.

In a separate incident in 2014, Cohen says that Netanyahu asked him to remove the security clearance for then-cabinet minister Naftali Bennett, due to what he said was an unspecified “loyalty problem” while Bennett was serving in the army.

Cohen says in his declaration that he told the prime minister he would not comply, upon which Netanyahu told him to drop the issue. Cohen says the allegation against Bennett was anyway unfounded.