PM granted extension to respond to claims he improperly pressured Shin Bet chief
Netanyahu given until Sunday to file affidavit to High Court on Ronen Bar firing, day after leveling fresh attack against security agency on eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day
The High Court on Thursday gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an extra four days to file a response to explosive claims made by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar as part of a legal battle over the government’s decision to fire the top security official last month.
Netanyahu, who is seeking to oust Bar over a breakdown in trust between the two, had been ordered by the court to submit an affidavit by Thursday, but he requested Thursday morning that the deadline be postponed until Sunday, arguing that Bar had filed his own claims a day late and that the premier’s lawyer was abroad for a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.
On Monday, Bar filed an affidavit accusing Netanyahu of pressuring him to help the prime minister postpone his testimony in his criminal trial, against Bar’s professional opinion, and of asking him to use the Shin Bet to act against anti-government activists involved in legitimate political protest. Bar also alleged that it was “made clear to him” that he was expected to be loyal to the government even if it defies a High Court of Justice ruling.
Bar’s filing was submitted a day late, after the court begrudgingly granted him a one-day extension.
Lawyers for Netanyahu argued Thursday that he too was owed an extension since he received Bar’s submission a day later than initially planned.
The prime minister’s attorneys added that the lawyer preparing the affidavit, Zion Amir, is currently in Poland for the March of the Living memorial marking Holocaust Remembrance Day and will only return to Israel on Friday.
Bar had submitted his affidavit in response to petitions filed by government watchdog groups seeking to block his ouster as Shin Bet chief, after Netanyahu’s government voted in March to fire him. The premier has blamed the Shin Bet chief for allowing the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught on southern Israel and has alleged that he is part of a “deep state” conspiracy seeking to undermine the government’s authority.
The court has frozen Bar’s dismissal while it considers claims that the firing was tainted by a conflict of interest due to a Shin Bet investigation into alleged furtive ties between aides to Netanyahu and the Gulf state of Qatar, as well as allegations of severe procedural problems in the dismissal process.
Coalition MKs and some bereaved families have protested the court’s decision, saying the court exceeded its authority by meddling in matters of state security.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu redoubled his accusations against Bar, accusing the Shin Bet of “persecuting right-wing activists.”
Netanyahu’s post included a recording of a conversation between the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division and a senior police officer in the West Bank, during which the former discussed wanting to use a controversial practice to detain a suspect without charge.
The conversation ended with officer Avishai Muallem — who is suspected of ignoring Jewish nationalist attacks in order to curry favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — telling the Shin Bet agent that “you have nothing on [the suspect].”
The recording came several weeks after the release of an earlier tape of the Shin Bet official and Muallem generated an outcry over the agent’s description of radical settler youths as “shmucks,” leading him to suspend himself.
The Times of Israel Community.