In a recording leaked Monday, a suspended officer in Israel’s Shin Bet security agency is heard dismissing a judge’s request to explain the arrest of a Jewish person.
The recording is the latest in a series of leaks that began appearing on April 5 and which have hurt the reputation of the agency’s Jewish Department.
The leaks coincide with attempts by the government to fire Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, a firing the High Court of Justice blocked last week, pending further review. The affair is part of a broader and polarizing power struggle between elected politicians and unelected officials, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called “the deep state.”
The latest recording, according to Kan News, is of A., who suspended himself from heading the Jewish Department last week due to an earlier leak. The new recording is a conversation between a police officer and A. about a judge’s request to review Shin Bet material in connection with the detainment of a person of interest to the Jewish Department, Kan reported.
The judge “saw the material and he tells me: ‘I want to see the Shin Bet version, the raw Shin Bet material’,” the police officer, Avishai Muallem, tells A., according to the report. A. reportedly replied: “He’s not going to see it. He can piss up a rope. Who does he think he is?”
The dismissiveness toward the judiciary is embarrassing for Shin Bet at a time when Bar is in office due to a court injunction that suspended indefinitely the Cabinet’s vote on April 8 to fire him due to trust issues.
Bar headed Shin Bet on Oct. 7, 2023. On that day, about 6,000 Gazan terrorists invaded Israel, killed some 1,200 people and abducted another 251.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime critic of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department, reacted to the leaks in a statement, saying that it’s “not surprising to hear how Shin Bet flouts judges after it was revealed how it spies on elected officials and the heads of counterpart security organizations, trumps up charges against outstanding police officers, and disregards the guidelines of the law.”
The fact that Bar is still in his position and enjoys the protection of the attorney general despite the “monstrous proportions” of the Jewish Department’s actions, Ben-Gvir added, exposed “a deep state in full swing.”
Muallem was head of the Central Unit in the Judea and Samaria District Police when the conversation was recorded. In November, he was arrested for alleged preferential treatment toward Jews in Judea and Samaria. He has denied these charges.
On April 7, a leaked recording of the deputy head of the Jewish Department reportedly documented him telling Muallem: “If you keep not responding, it won’t be the district commander, it will be above the district commander. I never had an interlocutor I needed to chase.” Netanyahu said this showed the Shin Bet tried to “blackmail” Muallem for questioning its practices in handling Jewish detainees.
In the earlier leaked recording published on April 6, A. is heard telling Muallem about Jews in Judea and Samaria: “We arrest those jerks also without evidence,” according to Kan.
Attorney General Gali Bahrav-Miara has backed Bar and defended him against Netanyahu’s push to fire him. She said there is a conflict of interest on Netanyahu’s part because the Shin Bet is investigating claims that Qatar gave money to some people on Netanyahu’s staff. Netanyahu has rejected these allegations, saying the investigation into Qatar is being used to prevent the dismissal.
The Israeli Cabinet last month voted in favor of firing both Bar and Baharav-Miara. The government has clashed with Bahrav-Miara in connection with the recordings of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department’s top officers.
Netanyahu’s office rejected a statement by Shin Bet saying that it would investigate its Jewish Department’s conduct. An investigation would be carried out by Bar’s successor, Netanyahu’s office said. But Bahrav-Miara’s office then said the investigation would be carried out under Bar.