He expected that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday would formally fired the head of the Shin Bet domestic Intelligence Agency, despite the street protests and the escaped for the move that further launched a country deeply divided still in war.
The Israeli cabinet should have convened for a night vote on the dismissal of the boss Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, a few days after Mr. Netanyahu had announced his intention to ignore him, citing a lack of personal trust between them.
It comes after Israel’s military resumed a fatal campaign in Gaza who has raised concern among many Israelis for the destinies of the hostages still held in the Enclave. Sirene warning of missile fire arriving from Gaza sent Israelis to the Tel Aviv area running for the coverage on Thursday for the first time in months.
The Shin bet is deeply involved in the Israel war against Hamas in Gaza, providing intelligence and objectives. By law, the agency also has the task of protecting Israeli democracy.
The discord between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Bar goes in the heart of a wider battle that takes place on the nature and future of Israeli democracy and the rule of law. The critics of the coalition to the power of Netanyahu, the most right and religiously conservative in the history of Israel, accuse him of working to reduce the authority of independent state guard dogs and to remove checks and sales on the powers of the government, which holds a narrow majority in Parliament.
The dismissal of Mr. Bar for reasons of personal trust has also raised public concerns that future appointments could mainly be based on loyalty towards the prime minister.
For months, Mr. Bar had made Mr. angry. Netanyahu by officials in the Prime Minister’s Office for requests for leaked documents and the work for people connected to Qatar. Mr. Netanyahu denied any offense.
Thousands of people protested in Jerusalem on Wednesday in anticipation of the move and other protests took place on Thursday. At lunchtime, a long column of academics had marked storm from a campus of the Jewish university of Jerusalem towards one of the private residences of Netanyahu, beating the battery, singing, “Democracy!” And rubbing with the police officers after trying to break through a barricade.
Some important opposition figures have joined the demonstrators. The video footage of the scene showed the police officers who push the demonstrators aggressively, including Yair Golan, a former deputy head of the army and now the leader of the Democratic Party to the left of the center, which ended up on the ground. The police used a water cannon and sprayed the demonstrators with a fragrant liquid in an attempt to disperse them.
The new protests recall weekly events in 2023 against attempts to review the judiciary to reduce its power as a control over the government, with company leaders at some point that join the unions to maintain a national strike. Those protests stopped abruptly with the attack led by Hamas to Southern Israel who lit the war on October 7, 2023, although the broad sense of national solidarity which prevailed then is now frayed.
Netanyahu and his allies have made accusations of overcoming against the judiciary and other independent branches, saying that they hindered the freedom of the government to make decisions and represent the will of the voters.
Netanyahu has been under the police investigation and is on trial on charges of corruption, which denies. He repeatedly accused a liberal “deep state” of leading a witch hunt against him and his family.
The bet Shin is investigating the Prime Minister’s Office of the Office for the statements of having leaked secret documents to the media and also worked for people connected to Qatar, an Arabic state near Hamas. The investigation, called “qatargate” in the local media, is continuing in secret under a large order of bavaglio.
Mr. Netanyahu denied illegal and his office rejected the episode as “false news”. The Qatar government did not respond to requests for comment.
The Mr. Bar, who led the Shin bet since 2021, released a rare public declaration last week, after the announcement of Netanyahu, stating that the “personal trust” expectation was in opposition to the public interest.
“It is a fundamentally imperfect expectation that is in violation of the law and the Shin Bet statesman,” said Bar.
Mr. Bar and The Shin Bet took responsibility for their part in the failure of the intelligence which brought to the guided attack by Hamas, which led to the most fatal day for the Israelis from the foundation of their state in 1948.
But in a summary of the agency’s internal probe in its conduct issued at the beginning of this month, the Shin Bet also indicated years of government indulgent of the government against Hamas and Gaza as an important factor, probably angry Netanyahu.
By appearing encouraged nationally, as well as in Gaza, from faithful support to the American administration, Netanyahu has made a common cause with President Trump in a place of blunt social media at the end of Wednesday.
“In America and Israel, when a strong leader of the right wing wins the elections, the Deep State on the left wears the judicial system to counter the will of the people,” he wrote. “They don’t win in either of the two places! We are strong together.”
The billionaire Elon Musk, a narrow ally of Mr. Trump, responded with a red “100” EMOJI, suggesting that he agreed with Mr. Netanyahu.
Many Israelis consider the country’s democracy as more and more fragile. Israel does not have a formal written constitution, only a legislative chamber and a president whose role is mostly ceremonial and symbolic.
The current president, Isaac Herzog, issued a video declaration on Thursday in which he warned by the unilateral actions that he said he could damage social cohesion and resilience of Israel.
Mr. Herzog did not mention specifically the government or the expulsion of Mr. Bar, but referring to new call-up notices sent to thousands of reserve soldiers, he said: “It is not possible to send our children to the front row and at the same time to make controversial moves that deeply polar the nation”.
Thursday, taking the vote to the government, Netanyahu was also challenging a legal opinion of the prosecutor General, Gali Baharav-Ciara, who advised that the dismissal of Mr. Bar must be approved for the first time by a consultative committee that supervises senior appointments.
Mrs. Baharav-Ciara, appointed by the previous government, has often clashed with the current one. The prominent members of the Cabinet of Mr. Netanyahu said that after the removal of Mr. Bar, the attorney general will be the next.
The families of hostages still held in Gaza, up to 24 of which are believed to be alive, have expressed indignation and alarm for those who consider the incorrect priorities of Mr. Netanyahu, as well as the collapse of a temporary cease and the renewed military campaign.
“First, return the hostages. Everything else comes later!” The forum of hostages and disappeared families, a basic organization that supports prisoners and their relatives on behalf of the prisoners, said on Thursday in a declaration. The forum described the hostages as “in danger of death and disappeared in the tunnels of Hamas in Gaza”.
Myra Noveck in Jerusalem e The cartilage of Sheikh Ahmad In Haifa, in Israel, he contributed to relationships.