Report: Smotrich suggests removing task of ‘preserving democracy’ from Shin Bet’s purview

21 March 2025, 1:02 pm

21 Edit

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is said to have suggested during last night’s cabinet meeting on the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar that the responsibility of “preserving democracy” should be removed from the security agency’s purview.

“We should exclude the job of preserving democracy from the Shin Bet’s statute,” he is quoted by the Kan public broadcaster as saying.

The far-right Religious Zionism leader also claimed during the meeting that “the entire Shin Bet command thinks that Ronen Bar should go,” and said that the Supreme Court did not have the right to “force” Netanyahu to work with him, Kan reports.