Report: Shin Bet covertly probed Kahanist infiltration into police under Ben Gvir

The Shin Bet has conducted a covert probe into the possible infiltration of extreme-right elements into the Israel Police following suspected political meddling in the force by the office of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the police, a report said Sunday.

The Shin Bet security agency initially seemed to confirm it was examining the concerns, but later issued a denial. Meanwhile, the far-right Ben Gvir called the development an “earthquake” that he said justified the government’s recent move to dismiss agency chief Ronen Bar.

Channel 12 news reported that the probe — for the suspected undermining of governance protocols in Israel — focused on alleged intervention by Ben Gvir’s office in police instructions regarding Jewish prayer at the flashpoint Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem on the Jewish mourning day of Tisha B’Av in August 2024.

The Shin Bet’s investigation began the following month, the report said, presenting what it said was a typed note dated September 26, 2024, from recently fired Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in which he said that the agency had “marked the infiltration of Kahanism into the law enforcement agencies as a dangerous phenomenon whose prevention is part of the Shin Bet’s mission.”

Kahanism is the ideology espoused by extreme-right leader Rabbi Meir Kahane, a former MK who headed the banned ultranationalist group Kach before his death at the hands of an assassin in New York in 1990.

Bar was referring to a 2002 law that states that one of the Shin Bet’s tasks is to protect the democratic regime and its institutions.

Bar in his note said that due to the “involvement of political ranks,” stopping such infiltration must be done “wisely and carefully,” likely in reference to Ben Gvir.

Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party is seen as a successor to the banned, racist Kach party founded by Kahane, though Ben Gvir has more recently claimed to have moderated his views.

Bar gave instructions “to collect evidence and testimony of the involvement of political elements” in law enforcement work and specifically for “unlawfully exerting force.”

According to the TV report, the memo was sent out three weeks after a meeting between Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during which the Shin Bet chief raised concerns that Ben Gvir had overstepped his authority regarding Jewish visits to the Temple Mount by giving direct orders on arrangements at the site. A review by the Shin Bet found that Ben Gvir did not act inappropriately but Bar nonetheless ordered the probe into the Kahanist seep and demanded findings on the matter.

Ben Gvir himself entered the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av in August, and Jews were seen openly praying there in contravention of a longstanding status quo governing the site, which is the holiest to Jews as the site of two ancient Jewish temples that stood there and the third-holiest to Muslims, who refer to it as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound or the Noble Sanctuary. Many Muslim and Arab leaders deny the site is holy to Jews.

The Haaretz daily reported in December that then-Jerusalem District Police acting commander Amir Arzani initially refused to approve Ben Gvir’s entry that day. The visit reportedly went ahead anyway after the minister’s staff and Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi, described by the left-wing outlet as a Ben Gvir associate, contacted Deputy Police Commissioner Avshalom Peled. Arzani was said to eventually have permitted the public Jewish prayer observed that day.

Shin Bet officials who witnessed what happened that day passed on the information to the head of the security service, who then sought the probe, according to Haaretz.

Channel 12 reported Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been informed of the probe, which the premier’s office swiftly denied, saying in a statement to the network that Netanyahu “is not aware of the investigation and was not updated about it by the head of the Shin Bet.”

Ben Gvir reportedly fumed at the report, which was published while he, Netanyahu, Bar and others were attending a security consultation. Reports said the police minister asked Bar if he was really behind the alleged probe and that the latter answered: “Lies. I never ordered a probe against you.”

The minister then exited and returned with a copy of Bar’s reported letter, calling the Shin Bet chief a “liar, a criminal who belongs in jail” and who “is trying to instigate a coup.”

The Shin Bet noted in a response to the report that its mission includes dealing with the Kach and the related Kahane Hai groups, which were outlawed in 1994 and declared to be terrorist organizations in 2016, but which nonetheless continued to be active even following those dates.

It said the agency worked to “uncover” and “thwart” the groups’ activities, “in accordance with its mission under the law.”

“As a result, and as information on the subject is received, the service deals with concerns about the infiltration of these elements into government institutions, and in particular into law enforcement institutions,” it said.

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy was “surprised by the alleged claims against police” in the report the force said in a statement.

“The police chief has no idea what it is about and therefore immediately demands clarification from the head of the Shin Bet and the attorney general,” the statement said.

It further stressed that “to the extent that such serious suspicions have arisen that have dangerous implications, their details must first and foremost be forwarded to the head of the organization so that he can deal with it.”

The Shin Bet later Sunday issued a statement denying opening the probe mentioned in the report, despite its initial reaction which appeared to confirm it. The second statement clarified that “there was no Shin Bet investigation on the matter, toward police or politicians, and there is no Shin Bet probe now either.”

The statement said Bar had clarified the matter with Levy, the police chief, in a phone call.

Ben Gvir’s office described the report as “an earthquake,” and said it demonstrated why Bar cannot remain as head of the Shin Bet.

“The head of a clandestine organization that initiates investigations and collects materials against elected officials, defining in advance the goal ‘to collect evidence and testimony of the involvement of the political echelon’ is an immediate danger to democracy, who must immediately flee from any position,” it said in a statement.

In a later statement on X, Ben Gvir said Bar should be put on trial “for trying to engineer a coup against democracy,” adding that he won’t be satisfied with the Shin Bet’s chief’s firing, currently in the process of being implemented amid a bruising fight with the judiciary.

One of Ben Gvir’s senior advisers is Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, a far-right disciple of Kahane and founder of the anti-miscegenetic Lehava organization, who has been convicted of incitement to racism.

Another of Ben Gvir’s senior advisers is Chanamel Dorfman, a far-right activist who has been previously investigated by the Shin Bet and who has served as the minister’s chief of staff. Dorfman is Gopstein’s son-in-law.

Dorfman was recently questioned by the Department of Internal Police Investigations as part of a probe into a senior West Bank police commander suspected of deliberately ignoring settler violence against Palestinians to please Ben Gvir and earn a possible promotion.

Last week, the government voted to fire Bar, with Netanyahu citing his lack of trust in the agency chief. On Sunday, the cabinet approved a motion of no confidence in Baharav-Miara accusing her of repeatedly thwarting its legislations and initiating a process aimed at firing her.

Both moves have sparked public outcry and demonstrations by critics claiming that Netanyahu and the entire government had a conflict of interest in firing the Shin Bet head, due to the security agency’s ongoing investigation into allegedly unlawful ties between close aides to Netanyahu and Qatar.