Shin Bet said to have warned nominated chief Zini over relative’s West Bank extremism

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nominee to be the next head of the Shin Bet, Maj. Gen. David Zini, was told by the security agency that it had accumulated intelligence on one of Zini’s relatives regarding extremist activity in the West Bank, according to a Wednesday report.

Zini was told by a senior officer in the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division, which investigates Israeli settler violence and other Jewish nationalist crime, that it had gathered “disturbing information” concerning a “very close relative” of his during an investigation into Jewish extremist activities in the West Bank, Channel 12 reported.

The phone call took place just before Netanyahu announced his intention to appoint Zini as the next chief of the domestic intelligence service in May, the report said.

The report said that Zini was asked to reach out to his relative to “calm things down,” and to keep a close eye on the family member.

According to the report, it is common practice within the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division to call family members of those suspected of involvement in extremist activities and violence in the West Bank to warn them of their relatives’ actions and to advise close monitoring of the individual within the family.

The report did not specify the “very close” relative’s relationship to Zini or what exactly the intelligence regarding their suspected activities is about.

Zini, a father of 11, had until recently served as head of the IDF Training Command and General Staff Corps. He has also been responsible for advancing the drafting of Haredi soldiers to the military. He was dismissed from the army after going behind IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s back to discuss the Shin Bet appointment with Netanyahu.

He is a controversial figure due to his self-described “messianic” views, and according to reports, officials in the Shin Bet have threatened to resign if he takes over the agency.

He has also said during private discussions with former senior security officials that “the judicial system is a dictatorship that rules the State of Israel.”

Zini was nominated by Netanyahu as head of the agency in May, though the appointment has been fraught from the start, as the ouster of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar was itself a point of contention.

Bar stepped down from his position as the head of the Shin Bet on June 15 after Netanyahu moved to fire him from the role in a bitter dispute that ended up in the High Court.

Bar had been dismissed by cabinet vote on March 21 based on Netanyahu’s assertion that he had lost confidence in Bar’s ability to do the job in the wake of the October 7 onslaught. He has since been replaced by his former deputy, known as “Shin,” in an interim capacity as head of the secretive security agency, until Zini or someone else is formally appointed to the post.

Government watchdog groups petitioned the High Court against the controversial decision, alleging that Bar had been dismissed due to his defiance of the prime minister on several key issues, and not for professional considerations.

The High Court ruled in May that Netanyahu had acted unlawfully in recommending to the cabinet that Bar be fired, stating that the Shin Bet investigations into the prime minister’s close aides in the “Qatargate” and leaked documents scandals meant he had a conflict of interest in the decision and should not have been involved.

The debate over the Shin Bet appointments has aroused huge public controversy, with opponents of the government claiming Netanyahu was trying to suppress the agency’s investigations of his advisers, while the coalition and its supporters have contended that the attorney general and the court were overstepping and trying to replace the elected government and its authority.