The Israeli Cabinet on Tuesday canceled its decision to fire Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Ronen Bar, following his announcement the previous day that he would resign on June 15.
The government also filed a request with the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, to annul petitions filed against the decision to fire Bar, since that decision had now been rescinded.
The High Court ordered the petitioners, the attorney general and all other parties to the proceedings to respond to the motion by May 7.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioners, denounced the government’s decision to reverse Bar’s dismissal as “a cynical and transparent trick designed to stop a principled decision by the High Court,” and said it would still request a ruling in the case.
Bar announced on Monday that he was stepping down, citing personal responsibility for the failure to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
“After years on many fronts, in one night on the southern front, the sky fell,” he stated during a memorial for fallen Shin Bet personnel. “All systems collapsed. The Shin Bet also failed to provide early warning.” Bar added, “As the head of the organization, I took the responsibility.”
The moves by Bar and the government are widely seen as being aimed at averting a possible constitutional crisis should the High Court rule that the Shin Bet director must remain in his role despite being dismissed by the government.
Announcing his retirement, Bar expressed hope that the court would issue a ruling in principle. “The High Court of Justice hearing is not about my personal matter, but about the independence of future heads of the Shin Bet, and of course to that end I shall be prepared to attend any proceeding as required by the court in the future as well,” he said.
“A clarification is required of the institutional protections that will enable every head of the service to fulfill his task, subject to the policy of the government, for the benefit of the public, independently and free of pressures, and thereby draw a clear line between confidence and personal loyalty,” he continued.
Netanyahu first announced his intention to dismiss Bar on March 16, citing an “ongoing lack of trust” in the Shin Bet chief. Four days later, the Cabinet unanimously approved the motion. The resolution cited Netanyahu’s distrust of Bar, deemed detrimental to the government and the internal security service.
In an affidavit submitted earlier this week, Netanyahu accused Bar of having led the “greatest security failure” in the history of the country.
“The operational principles set by Bar in the summary of the security discussion he held an hour and 15 minutes before the [Oct. 7, 2023] massacre are the greatest intelligence failure in the history of Israel,” wrote the premier in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court.
“Bar’s claim that he warned of war and alerted the entire system is false. He did not alert the prime minister, nor the minister of defense, nor the emergency response teams and security coordinators in the kibbutzim, and he did not order the evacuation of the Nova party,” Netanyahu said.
The Oct. 7 massacre left approximately 1,200 people dead and saw 251 hostages taken into Gaza. Numerous Israeli officials have described the attack as the greatest intelligence failure in the Jewish nation’s history.
Netanyahu’s affidavit was in response to Bar’s own court filing, in which he accused the prime minister of repeatedly acting in an illegal manner, including by asking the security chief to examine the funding driving protests that have sought to bring down his right-wing government.
Bar also charged Netanyahu with telling him that in the event of a “constitutional crisis,” or clash between the High Court and the government, Bar would be obligated to obey the latter.
According to Section 3 of the General Security Service Law, the government has the authority to “terminate the term of office of the head of the agency before the end of his term.”
However, the Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction on April 8 barring Netanyahu from firing Bar, alleging a conflict of interest on the prime minister’s part due to the ongoing criminal probes into members of his staff.