PM, coalition bash Shin Bet over tape of officer saying settler ‘shmucks’ held without evidence

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of his hard-right coalition lash out at the Shin Bet after the Kan public broadcaster publishes a recording of the chief of the security agency’s Jewish Division saying that radical settlers youths were arrested and held without evidence.

In the tape, Cdr. Avishai Mualem — a senior officer in the police’s West Bank division who is suspected of ignoring Jewish nationalist attacks to curry favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — speaks with the Shin Bet official, who can only be identified by the Hebrew initial “Aleph.”

The broadcaster does not specify when the recording was made. In November, Defense Minister Israel Katz declared the end of the use of administrative detention against West Bank settlers, and in January released those being held without charges.

The recording aired by Kan begins with Mualem and the Shin Bet officer discussing where to hold some Jewish detainees as they wait for the defense minister to sign off on the administrative detention orders.

“Right,” Aleph says in response to Mualem’s suggestion that they be put in holding cells. “We always want to arrest them for interrogation, as much as possible.”

“You see how they deal with Shin Bet investigations. We arrest these shmucks without evidence for a few days,” adds the Shin Bet officer.

In response to the recording, the Shin Bet says the conversion “solely addressed lawbreakers suspected of violence, who took the law into their hands.”

The statement nevertheless says the “the content and style of the remarks that were said do not suit the values and professional conduct of the agency,” and that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar will examine the matter.

“Arrests of Israeli citizens who are suspected of terror activities are done after professional considerations are exercised and a careful examination of the intelligence material… and is again examined with outside and independent judicial criticism by the court,” the statement adds.

A statement from the prime minister’s office calls “the shocking recording… a substantive threat to democracy.”

“Only in dark regimes does the secret police act in this dangerous way,” adds the statement from the premier, who is currently working to oust Bar amid the so-called Qatarqate probe into Netanyahu’s aides’ allegedly illicit ties with Qatar.