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Benjamin Netanyahu has called his internal security chief a “liar” in a sworn affidavit to Israel’s supreme court, as he rejected claims that he sought to politicise the powerful Shin Bet domestic spy agency.
The Israeli premier’s affidavit submitted on Sunday came after last week’s initial statement to the court by Ronen Bar, Shin Bet head, alleging that Netanyahu demanded personal fealty in the event of any future constitutional crisis with the country’s judiciary.
Bar also alleged he had been asked to use the vast powers of his agency to monitor anti-government protesters and to halt Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial on security grounds.
The rival affidavits were filed ahead of further deliberations by the supreme court on whether Netanyahu can legally fire the spy chief. His government sacked Bar last month citing a “loss of confidence” in him, but the justices issued an injunction halting the removal until its legality was resolved.
Netanyahu in his affidavit rejected Bar’s allegations, calling them replete with “lies and contradictions” in a bid to “paint a distorted picture . . . as if he [Bar] is fighting for the rule of law and the Shin Bet’s independence”.
Among the two dozen pages of the unclassified portion of the affidavit made public, Netanyahu claimed he never requested that Bar monitor peaceful anti-government protesters — but only that the Shin Bet handle potentially violent activists inciting actions against senior officials and their families.
Netanyahu also rejected the claim that he asked for Bar’s help in halting his corruption trial, describing the exchange as a simple demand that security precautions be taken after a Hizbollah drone struck the premier’s private residence last October.
Netanyahu and his family were not at home at the time, his trial was eventually moved to an underground courtroom in Tel Aviv, and the indicted premier ultimately took the stand in his own defence in December.
Yet Netanyahu did not directly contradict Bar’s allegation that he was asked to side with the prime minister in any future clash with the supreme court. Netanyahu’s affidavit only stated that there was “no trace” to support the claim in the evidence Bar presented to the court.
In response to Netanyahu, Bar issued a statement later on Sunday night saying that: “All the details that were raised . . . in the affidavit I submitted are the absolute truth,” and repeated his prior claims regarding the prime minister’s attempts to influence his work for political and personal ends.
“The things that the prime minister wrote in his affidavit are full of inaccuracies, selective quotes and half truths whose purpose is to take things out of context and change reality,” Bar added.
Netanyahu’s ruling coalition has been locked in a two-year battle with the legal and judicial authorities, and has tried to sack or dilute the power of many of those working for them.
Netanyahu in his statement took a guarded swipe at the supreme court, wondering why he needed to enter an “affidavit competition” with a civil servant working under him and who was fired “unanimously” by the government.
In the lengthiest portion of the affidavit, however, Netanyahu tried to refute Bar’s claims regarding the timeline of events leading up to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, including on the night ahead of the assault.
Bar, Netanyahu wrote, was trying to hold on to his post at all costs despite “his direct and enormous responsibility for not preventing the massacre” by Hamas, which the prime minister claimed was the core reason for the Shin Bet chief’s dismissal.
“It’s the largest intelligence failure in Israeli history!” Netanyahu wrote in enlarged font.
Netanyahu and his allies in government and the media have tried to pin sole blame for the October 7 attack on the security chiefs in place at the time, most of whom — save Bar — have either already been fired or resigned.
The prime minister, in power for much of the past 16 years, has consistently refused to admit any responsibility for the worst loss of life in Israeli history, and has stymied the creation of a national commission of inquiry to fully investigate the attack.
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