PM shares call for Shin Bet to arrest dozens over faux ‘severed heads’ protest display
Netanyahu endorses post by hawkish hostages’ families’ group that attributes ‘displays of murder and hatred’ to feud between premier and Bar, says protests ‘nothing to do with hostages’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday appeared to endorse a call for the Shin Bet to arrest “dozens of people for inciting murder” over a display of replicas of his head surrounding a man wrapped in faux-bloody bandages at an anti-government hostage families’ protest in Tel Aviv.
“This needs to be said in a clear voice: The severed heads, as well as the protests today, have nothing to do with the hostages,” wrote the Tikva (hope) Forum, which comprises hostages’ families opposed to a deal with Hamas, in a post shared by Netanyahu’s official X account. “On the contrary, these are people who decided to sacrifice the hostages in an attempt to overthrow the government.”
The call came days after Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, whom the government is seeking to oust, filed an affidavit accusing Netanyahu of pressuring him to wield the domestic security agency’s tools against anti-government activists. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom the government also seeks to oust, has said Bar’s dismissal risks robbing the Shin Bet of its independence.
In the post shared by Netanyahu, the Forum wrote that it was “unclear where the Shin Bet is when it comes to these clear and dangerous representations of murder.”
“We can only hope that the feud between the prime minister and Ronen Bar doesn’t affect the Shin Bet’s positions on everything to do with the prime minister’s security,” wrote the Forum, asserting that was the only explanation for “the silence around the displays of murder and hatred.”
The Tikva Forum is smaller than the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, another group of hostages’ families, which supports ending the Gaza war to secure a hostage deal and holds largely apolitical rallies weekly at Hostages Square on Saturday evenings.
The Begin Street protests, where the picture of the display was taken, are affiliated with a third hostage families’ group called Forum Haim (life), whose members are vocal in their opposition to Netanyahu and his government. The protests on Begin Street draw activists from several left-wing groups.
In a separate statement on the Begin Street protest display, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s Likud party called it “madness” and said it “represents incitement to murder the prime minister and behead him.”
“Where is the enforcement of the attorney general and Ronen Bar?” the spokesman asked, attaching a photo of the scene, in which a shirtless man wearing mock-bloodied bandages on his chest and head can be seen lying still on the street, clutching an Israeli flag.
Surrounding the man’s head are several masks of Netanyahu, each with a sticker bearing a slogan such as “guilty” or “danger.”
Netanyahu and his political allies have long complained about incitement against him and his family, pointing fingers at the justice system, law enforcement, and the attorney general for what the premier says is unchecked violent speech by members of the public.
The prime minister’s March 21 decision to fire Bar, which came as the Shin Bet was investigating the premier’s aides’ ties to Hamas-backer Qatar, prompted opposition parties and government watchdog groups to petition the High Court seeking to halt the termination.
The petitioners accused Netanyahu of trying to stymie the so-called Qatargate probe and of firing Bar for political reasons. They demanded the court reverse Bar’s ouster since, they argued, it was made amid a conflict of interest and out of ulterior motives.
Netanyahu’s critics also accuse him of seeking to offload onto Bar the blame for failure to prevent the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu has previously promoted a conspiracy theory that Bar had prior knowledge of the shock assault and purposely withheld that information from the prime minister.
During a press conference last Sunday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to halt incitement against Bar before it leads to “political murder.”
Bar, who has accepted responsibility for failure to prevent the Hamas onslaught, reportedly told bereaved families that he would resign by May 15.
The Times of Israel Community.