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Israel supreme court rules Shin Bet chief to stay in post 'until later decision'
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Apr 9, 2025
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that Shin Bet director Ronen Bar will stay in his position for the next 12 days, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to fire him last month. The government and the attorney general have until April 20 to come to a “creative solution” regarding Ronen Bar's future, the justices said at the close of Tuesday's hearing. FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.
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To Israel now, the country's top courts has ruled against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
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controversial decision to fire his spy chief. The court says the director will stay in his position for the next 12 days
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Proceedings at the courts were briefly interrupted by protests from government supporters
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Orinan Bahr was sacked last month from his role as the head of Shin Bat's internal security
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agency, with the government citing a lack of trust. Well, the government and the attorney general now have until April 20th
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to come up with a, quote, creative solution regarding Barr's future. Let's get more on this from France 24's Noga Tanopolsky
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who joins us live now from Jerusalem. Noga, good to see you
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So tell us more about what the Supreme Court ruled today. Right, well, initially the Supreme Court appeared to take a step back
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as you just suggested. It was a very raucous 10-hour session. interrupted multiple times by members of Prime Minister Antonio coalition who really disgraced themselves in front of the court Eventually the three justice panel decided to hold a live streamed hearing but with no public present And at the very end of this day
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the Supreme Court initially said, we're going to urge you to come up with a creative solution
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some kind of compromise. And in this way, maybe the hope was to pull Israel back from another step
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into a constitutional crisis because the government had illegally attempted to fire Ronan Bar
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the head of the Shin Bet, last month. And since then, Netanyahu twice attempted to, again, illegally appoint replacements for him
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It's been really a chaotic situation mid-war, as the work of the Shin Bet is extremely important
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for national security. But when the court eventually published its written ruling, it was clear that this was
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serious setback for the government. They canceled the illegal firing. They said it's null and void
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for now until further ruling They prohibited from Netanyahu not only to appoint anyone to replace him but in any way to harm his standing and to even interview people who might replace him It was pretty hard hitting and it does seem that the
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Supreme Court is giving the government kind of a last chance to make some arrangement and save face
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That said, Israel is still in a very serious crisis. Several of Netanyahu's allies and
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and ministers in the last hour since this decision came out have urged the government
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not to obey this decision, not to adhere to the court ruling, and to go ahead and dismiss
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Barr nonetheless. We have not yet heard from the prime minister who is en route from Washington
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but this could still unfold into a major, major crisis in the coming few days
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And what's the reaction been like to this decision from the Supreme Court in Israel
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Well, there are protests again on the streets of Israel tonight, as there are almost every night
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And they focused principally on trying to get the Israeli hostages now held in Gaza for 550 days back home But more and more of these protests have also taken on a pro tenor an overt anti tenor And today we heard of something
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remarkable that is connected to this entire matter of how the government is handling its security
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chiefs. Today we heard that the head of the Air Force, the commander of the Israeli Air Force
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Tomer Barr, has spent the last few days scrambling to try and prevent the publication of a mass
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letter, apparently, signed by numerous pilots calling for an end to the war and calling for
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their fellow pilots to join them in refusing to continue to serve in Gaza. If this letter
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is made public, it will be an earthquake in Israel and a huge vote of non-confidence
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in the way the government is attempting basically to take over the powers of the security chiefs
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Noga, great to get that update from you. Thank you for bringing us up to speed there
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