Israel's attorney general calls on high court to cancel dismissal of Shin Bet chief

Jerusalem, April 5 (IANS) Israel's Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara urged the country's High Court of Justice to overturn the government's decision to dismiss Ronen Bar, chief of Israel's internal security service Shin Bet.

The Israeli government unanimously voted on March 21 to remove Bar, citing a "lack of trust," following ongoing disagreements between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the supreme court swiftly suspended the decision until April 8, Xinhua news agency reported quoting Israel's state-owned Kan TV News.

In her response to the high court petitions from opposition factions in the Israeli parliament, Baharav-Miara argued that the dismissal was fundamentally flawed and tainted by Netanyahu's personal conflicts of interest.

These included the ongoing criminal investigations against Netanyahu's associates, which she claimed undermined the impartiality of the dismissal decision.

Earlier this week, two of Netanyahu's aides were arrested as part of an investigation known as "Qatar-Gate," which examines alleged business ties between the two aides and the Qatari government.

One of the suspects, Eli Feldstein, Netanyahu's former military affairs spokesman, was indicted in a separate case last November, on suspicion of leaking classified documents to influence public opinion by suggesting that protests advocating for a hostage deal with Hamas were strengthening the group.

Following Baharav-Miara's response, Netanyahu's Likud party said that "the real conflict of interest is the connection between the attorney-general and the Shin Bet chief, whom the government unanimously decided to replace, with the two working together to create fictitious cases and use law enforcement agencies as a political tool."

Meanwhile, in an open letter to the High Court of Justice on Friday, Bar said that Netanyahu had repeatedly requested that he issue an opinion citing security concerns to prevent Netanyahu's continuous court testimony -- a request Bar rejected.

He emphasised that the Shin Bet chief should not be a "position of trust" or a personal confidant of the prime minister but must maintain professional independence.

He warned against the possibility that the Shin Bet would become a secret police, saying his dismissal "send a clear message to the Shin Bet's entire chain of command, including its next chiefs, that if they lose favor among the political echelon, their dismissal will be immediately on the table."

--IANS

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