Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suddenly tried to remove the head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the two-year Salvo of the Israeli government, to give more control over the different branches of the state.
The move prompted calls for massive protests on Monday and drew criticism from business leaders and attorney general, calling for memories of social unrest in 2023, triggered by early push to reduce the power of state supervisors.
Mr. Netanyahu plans to hold a cabinet vote on what is known as “the future of the institution known as Shin Bet,” which was announced less than a month after his administration announced a similar intention to dismiss Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing coalition re-pushed parliament, which gave politicians more control over the choice of Supreme Court judges.
These moves mark Mr. Netanyahu's failed efforts in 2023 to reduce the power of institutions over government power, including the Supreme Court and the Attorney General.
The plan (often described as a judicial overhaul) proved to be a profound division, triggering months of massive protests and widening the rift in Israeli society. The movement was suspended only after the Hamas-led Israeli attack restored a sense of national unity in October 2023.
Now, amid the shaky ceasefire in Gaza, the relief of tension seems to be over.
“The head of Shin Bet should not be seen in isolation,” said Amichai Cohen, a law professor and researcher at the Jerusalem-based research group, the Institute of Democracy, an Israeli research group. “This is part of a general trend to take over these independent institutions and increase the power of executives.”
Professor Cohen added: “The judicial overhaul is back.”
Mr. Bell's attempts prompted opposition leaders and grassroots activists on Monday to call on Israel to show the cabinet outside the government headquarters in Jerusalem on Wednesday, when the cabinet would vote on Mr. Bell's future. A coalition of 300 major business leaders also issued a rare statement criticizing Mr. Bell's dismissal.
Attorney General Baharav-Miara issued a statement saying Mr. Netanyahu could not begin firing Mr. Attorney-General until he was sure whether it was legal to do so. She said there were concerns that Mr. Netanyahu would be a conflict of interest – if the Prime Minister ignored her warning, it would create a prospect of a constitutional crisis.
These developments sparked similar moves in 2023, when thousands of weekly protests protested against the overhaul and business leaders joined the union to conduct a national strike.
The recent background of trying to fire a lawyer is a personal dispute between the security chief and the prime minister. For months, Mr. Bell has been investigating officials in the Prime Minister's Office claiming they have leaked secret documents and worked for people who have ties to the Arab countries near Hamas, angering Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu denied misconduct; the Katari government did not respond to a request for comment.
Analysts say Mr. Netanyahu's last straw is likely to be a rare public intervention last week by Mr. Bell's predecessor, Nadav Argaman. Argaman said in a TV interview that he could reveal further allegations from the Prime Minister if he believes Netanyahu is about to break the law.
Prime Minister Nadav Shtrauchler said such comments from Mr. Bell's close allies were “too many”. “He sees it as a direct threat,” Mr Shtrauchler said. “In his eyes, he has no choice.”
But, analysts say the broader background is the broader dispute between Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing alliance and opponents of the nature of the Israeli state and future.
Mr. Netanyahu’s council is composed of various political parties representing hyperreligious Jews seeking to safeguard privileges; settler activists aim to deepen Israel’s control over the West Bank and further curb Palestinian rights.
For years, these groups have been dissatisfied with the independence of regulators such as the judiciary, the attorney general and the security sector, which acted as various people restricted certain privileges of super-Orthodox; certain movements of the settler movement; and prosecuted Mr. Netanyahu for his corruption. He was tried for denial.
The government and its supporters say that rule in the judiciary and other gatekeepers (such as Mingyin’s bets) can actually enhance democracy by giving legislators more freedom to formulate what voters choose to do. They also said Mr. Bell should have resigned on October 7, 2023 by Hamas, which triggered the attacks in the Gaza war.
“Shin Bet “pokes their noses into the issues of governance, control, values, social cohesion and of course democracy,” Eithan Orkibi wrote in a column for the right-wing daily Israel Hayom on Monday. After Mr. Bell's dismissal, Mr. Okibi continued that shin betting would “slowly return to its natural professional territory.”
But the opposition said such a move would undermine democracy by eliminating excessive critical examinations of the government, allowing Mr. Netanyahu's alliance, the most conservative and nationalist in Israel's history, to create a lesser diversityist and more authoritarian society. The opposition believes that Mr. Netanyahu should also be held responsible for the October 7 attack, not just Mr. Bell.
“By a consistent submission alliance, Netanyahu is demolishing all the gatekeepers of Israel,” Barak Seri wrote in a column for Maariv. “Demolition of everything we know since its establishment to protect Israel.”
The Israeli military said in another development that it had already strike in Gaza in central and southern Gaza against people trying to bury explosives on the ground. While Israel and Hamas formally observe the ceasefire, formal negotiations on the truce are stagnant, and Israel is regularly strikes what it calls radical goals. Hamas said the strikes killed more than 150 people, some of whom were civilians. It did not immediately comment on Monday's strike.
Myra Novik Contribution report.
