Photo Credit: Zulat

NIF grantee Zulat, an Israeli think tank advancing liberal values recently issued a formal call to Israel’s attorney general, state prosecutor, and police commissioner to open a new criminal investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for possible obstruction of justice, misuse of the power and breach of trust. 

The call comes on the heels of revelations of a new affidavit submitted to the High Court by Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar to stave off his dismissal.

Here is Dahlia Scheindlin in Haaretz on what has happened so far: 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last month that he intended to dismiss Bar, claiming he had lost trust in the Shin Bet chief. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara issued an opinion stating that the prime minister’s decision was “tainted by a personal conflict of interest” due to his ties to, and personal interest in, the Qatargate and BibiLeaks affairs the Shin Bet is investigating. Israeli citizens submitted petitions to the High Court against Netanyahu’s move, accusing him of acting out of personal political motivations.

Now, Bar’s 11-page sworn affidavit (with a 31-page confidential annex) outlines how Netanyahu demanded that Bar and the agency he heads spy on the pro-democracy demonstrators at the height of their protests in 2023. Bar says he refused. He says it was also “made clear to me that in the event of a constitutional crisis, I was to obey the prime minister and not the High Court.” 

Bar, says Scheindlin, was “asked to put a political boss above the law.” If Bar’s affidavit is true, says Einat Ovadia, the Director General of Zulat, then Netanyahu is “a Prime Minister who despised democracy, abused his power, attempted to disrupt legal proceedings–and acted as if he were above the law itself.”