Netanyahu says High Court ruling on Shin Bet chief is ‘puzzling,’ will keep interviewing new candidates

After the High Court issues an interim order keeping Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in his position, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu office calls the ruling “puzzling.”

In a statement released from Netanyahu’s Wing of Zion plane, where the prime minister is en route back to Israel from the US, the PMO notes that the judges affirmed the government’s authority to remove the head of the Shin Bet spy agency.

“Therefore, the High Court’s decision to postpone the end of the Shin Bet’s term by 10 days is puzzling,” says the PMO.

However, the statement does not indicate whether Netanyahu will heed the ruling amid cries from cabinet members to ignore it.

The PMO disputes the judges’ position that Bar should have been given a hearing, arguing that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara did not demand that the police commissioner be given a hearing when National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir asked to dismiss him.

The PMO accuses Baharav-Miara of being motivated by a desire to prevent Bar’s firing, using the ongoing investigation by Bar into the Qatargate scandal in Netanyahu’s office as a pretext.

“It is unthinkable that the Israeli government would be prevented from removing a failed Shin Bet head from office simply because an investigation has been opened that is not related to any of the government ministers,'” argues the PMO, adding that the precedent would allow the agency’s director to open up an investigation to forestall his dismissal.

Netanyahu will continue interviewing candidates to replace Bar, says his office.