Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused the Shin Bet domestic security service of “corruption” and “blackmail,” suggesting it had a top police officer arrested for refusing to violate the rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria.
The allegation by the Prime Minister’s Office followed Sunday’s publication of a recording, allegedly of a top Shin Bet agent threatening to go after Avishai Muallem, the head of the Central Unit in the Judea and Samaria District Police. In November, eight weeks after the recording was reportedly made, Muallem was arrested for alleged leniency toward Jews in Judea and Samaria.
The recording leaked to Channel 14 further eroded public confidence in the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department amid a spiraling constitutional crisis involving the Shin Bet and other government agencies that Netanyahu has recently labeled the “deep state.”
The department’s reputation suffered an earlier blow on Saturday due to another recording published by the Kan News broadcaster. In it, the department’s now-suspended head was heard dismissing legally mandated procedures in handling Jewish individuals.
The leaks lend credibility to decades-long claims of illegal practices by Shin Bet’s Jewish Department. Their timing, however, has injected them into an escalating conflict between Netanyahu’s government and the Shin Bet’s current head, Ronen Bar.
That showdown is, in turn, part of a broader clash between a conservative majority and a center-left establishment.
In the recording published on Sunday, Channel 14 reported that the deputy head of the Jewish Department is heard 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.”
Muallem was arrested in November, two-and-a-half months after the recording was made, according to Channel 14. He is being investigated on suspicion that he gave Jewish residents lenient, preferential and illegal treatment in exchange for a promotion by his boss, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Muallem and Ben-Gvir have denied this, calling the investigation, which has not produced an indictment, a political witch-hunt.
In a statement about that recording, Netanyahu suggested that Bar, together with Attorney General Gali Bahrav-Miara, orchestrated Muallem’s arrest.
The “shocking” recording was “of blackmail and threats by the deputy head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department against police officer Avishai Muallem,” Netanyahu wrote on X. Muallem “refused to cooperate with the demand of the head of the Jewish Department of the Shin Bet to carry out false arrests of Israeli citizens, and upheld the law. Subsequently, he was suddenly arrested with the approval of the attorney general on suspicion of corruption. This is further evidence of the corrupt conduct of the Jewish Department of the Shin Bet under Ronen Bar, in full cooperation with the attorney general,” Netanyahu wrote.
Senior Cabinet ministers have said that Bahrav-Miara should also be fired.
Netanyahu fired Bar last month, citing lacking confidence in him, but Bar has refused to leave office due to a High Court of Justice injunction against his dismissal. Bahrav-Miara also told the prime minister he cannot fire Bar.
The reason cited by the Court and Bahrav-Miara for blocking Bar’s dismissal was that Shin Bet was investigating claims that Qatar paid some of Netanyahu’s staff. This places Netanyahu at a conflict of interest when it comes to Bar, they argued. Netanyahu has rejected this, saying the investigation into Qatar is being used to prevent the dismissal.
The High Court is to hear arguments on Tuesday on petitions to void Bar’s dismissal.
Netanyahu also clashed with Bahrav-Miara in connection with the recordings of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department’s top officers. His office rejected a statement by Shin Bet saying that it would investigate the Jewish Department’s conduct. An investigation would be carried out by Bar’s successor, Netanyahu’s office said.
To conduct an effective internal investigation, the Prime Minister’s Office said, the Shin Bet must have leadership that has the confidence of the government, to which Shin Bet answers.
Bahrav-Miara responded by issuing a statement Sunday countering the Prime Minister’s Office and declaring that it would be Bar who investigates the Jewish Department.
On Sunday, a Supreme Court Justice ordered Baharav-Miara to respond by April 24 to a petition claiming that her involvement in Bar’s dismissal was tainted by a conflict of interest. Baharav-Miara’s husband is a former Shin Bet official and the couple has known Bar socially for many years, the petition by the Lavi nonprofit said.
Netanyahu is standing trial for alleged corruption, which he has dismissed as an attempt to oust him from power by the judiciary and the “deep state.”
Separately, Channel 12 published new recordings of the suspended head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Department (the officer, known as A., took a leave of absence following the publication Sunday of a conversation in which A. appeared to dismiss the issue of evidence when it came to arresting Jews.)
In the new recording, A. is heard saying: “I don’t care whether he broke the law” about an individual that A. wanted Muallem to arrest.
In the recording of A. that Kan News published on Saturday, he is heard saying: “We arrest those jerks also without evidence.”