The Israeli government approved this Friday morning the dismissal of the head of the National Intelligence Service of Israel, Ronen Bar, who considers it as a punishment for the investigation of the intelligence service in which an alleged plot of corruption between the Government, Qatar and the financing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is revealed.
The last day of Bar in the position will be on April 10, advancing the dismissal, initially scheduled for April 20. However, the prime minister’s office, Benjamin Netanyahu, has indicated that he can resign before the established date if the ministers approve a permanent replacement, according to the newspaper ‘.
The Head of the Shin Bet has not attended the cabinet meeting and has sent a letter in which he has loaded against the Netanyahu government. The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, ruled that the Netanyahu Executive lacks legal basis to dismiss it. Meanwhile, thousands of people have manifested in front of the government headquarters to protest the measure, the first time in the history of Israel that happens.
The until now Head of the National Intelligence Service of Israel, Ronen Bar, has indicated in his forceful letter that there are no “concrete examples” that justify their dismissal and has argued that the accusations against him “are nothing more than a cover” with the aim of “hindering the ability of Shin Bet to fulfill his functions” in the framework of the investigation on the case of corruption.
“Important investigations are being carried out, and their interruption through a sudden and hurried dismissal, based on fully unfounded accusations, smells like foreign interests and a conflict of unprecedented interests,” he added in the letter. In this sense, he has assured that his eventual dismissal “represents a direct threat to national security.” Bar has also denied that there is a rupture of trust between intelligence and the government, according to several Israeli media.
“There has been intense and effective cooperation between Shin Bet under my leadership and prime minister, which is giving significant results in the fight against terrorism,” said Bar, who has refused to attend the Council of Ministers despite being invited. He has also accused the Israeli prime minister to harm the negotiations to free the hostages of the Gaza Strip by withdrawing his confidence to the director of the Mossad, David Barnea, and also himself in the conversations with the mediators.
Massive protest against the Netanyahu government in Jerusalem.
Israel, on the edge of the civil war
On the other hand, the former president of the Supreme Court of Israel Aharon Barak has transferred his fear this Thursday to the possibility that internal divisions in Israeli society, increased for political reasons, can lead to a civil war in the country. “The greatest threat to Israeli society is the ‘eighth front’,” Barak said in an interview for El Portal alluding to the seven war scenarios facing the country, such as Gaza, Lebanon, Bank, Yemen, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
“The deep division between the Israeli themselves (…) is aggravating, and I’m afraid it is like a train that derails, diverting towards the abyss and leading to a civil war. We must prevent the tyranny of the majority,” said the former president of the Supreme.
The dismissal of Ronen Bar and corruption cases have caused a good part of the Israeli population to have taken to the streets in manifestations backed even by political leaders, such as the opponent Yair Golan attacked, and in which the security forces have arrested several people.
In this context of polarization, the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has launched a speech in which, not explicitly mentioning the government, he regrets the latest “controversial policies that deepen the popular division.”
