Israeli media reported on Monday that Ronen Bar, the chief of Israel’s home intelligence service, introduced he would resign and step down on June 15.
“After 35 years of service, in order to allow for an orderly process of appointing a permanent replacement and professional overlap, I will end my role on June 15, 2025,” Ronen Bar stated at a memorial ceremony for fallen Shin Bet personnel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an affidavit earlier than the Supreme Court on Sunday, described Bar as a “liar.”
Netanyahu’s response got here nearly per week after Bar himself made a sworn assertion to the court docket. It accused the prime minister of demanding private loyalty and ordering him to spy on anti-government protesters.
Bar’s dismissal, introduced by the federal government final month however frozen by the nation’s prime court docket, triggered mass protests.
The unprecedented transfer to fireplace the top of the Shin Bet safety company has been contested by the legal professional common and the opposition, which appealed Bar’s firing to the Supreme Court.
“The accusation, according to which I allegedly demanded action against innocent civilians, or against a non-violent and legitimate protest during the protests of 2023, is an absolute lie,” Netanyahu stated in his court docket assertion.
In his personal affidavit, Bar had stated “it was clear” that within the occasion of a possible constitutional disaster, Netanyahu would count on Bar to obey the prime minister and never the courts.
Netanyahu countered: “There is no proof supporting these remarks.”
Bar had additionally denied accusations by Netanyahu and his associates that the Shin Bet had didn’t warn in time about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault.
“Nothing was hidden” on that evening from the safety equipment or the prime minister, Bar stated.
Netanyahu countered earlier than the court docket that Bar “did not accomplish his mission” that evening.
“He did not wake up the prime minister. He did not wake up the minister of defense. He did not wake up the soldiers of the army,” or others earlier than the assault, Netanyahu alleged.
The prime minister’s 23-page doc stated Bar “failed in his role as chief of Shin Bet and lost the confidence of the entire Israeli government as far as his ability to continue to manage the organisation.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com