Jerusalem: The Supreme Court of Israel issued a court order on Friday temporarily freezing the dismissal of the head of the domestic intelligence service when the protesters returned to the streets for the fourth day.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that he had lost confidence in Shin Bet, Ronen Bar and intended to fire him.
Tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv this week protesting against dismissal, which critics saw as an attempt to undermine state institutions.
“I am looking at the end of Israel’s path as we knew in the past. We are very concerned that these are the last days of Israel as democracy,” said Uri Arnin, a businessman who joined a protest outside the residence of Jerusalem of Netanyahu.
The ruling of the Supreme Court will allow the court to consider requests launched against dismissal, which was approved by the cabinet on Thursday night, with a decision no later than April 8, said a statement from the Court.
The dismissal of Bar followed more than two years of hostility between the supporters of Netanyahu and the elements of the security and defense establishment that worsened for the failures that allowed the attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Bar, who had been one of the main Israeli negotiators in the high fire and the liberation conversations of Israeli prisoners, had already indicated that he would resign before his mandate ended in about 18 months, accepting responsibility for the failure of Shin Bet to avoid the attack.
Netanyahu, with a safe majority in Parliament and reinforced by the return of the Minister of National Line Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has been able to brush the protests.
“There will not be a civil war! The state of Israel is a rule of law and, according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of Shin’s bet,” Netanyahu wrote in X.
Qatargate probe
The movement to say goodbye to the bar occurred in the middle of a bitter fight for the so -called “Qatargate” investigation that has cooked over low heat for months, involving accusations of leaks and influence of the Netanyahu office.
Israeli media reported that Shin Bet opened an investigation into the accusations in February and in a letter to the government that challenged his dismissal that leaked to the press, Bar said he considered the completion of the investigation as a “public duty of the highest order.”
Posted in Dawn, on March 22, 2025
