Israeli Cabinet votes to sack Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar

“Bar will conclude his duties on April 10, 2025, or when a permanent director is appointed—whichever comes first,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

The proposal cited Netanyahu’s “persistent personal and professional distrust” of Bar, deemed detrimental to both the government and the security service.

In response, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a High Court petition seeking to overturn Bar’s dismissal.

Hours later, the court issued a temporary injunction preventing Bar from being removed. The order will reportedly remain in place up to April 8, by which time the court can hear the petitions that have been filed against the government’s move.

On Thursday, Netanyahu reportedly slammed Bar’s “soft approach” and thus “not the right person to rehabilitate” the Shin Bet after the colossal intelligence failures leading up to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

In February, the prime minister removed Bar from the hostage negotiation team and replaced him with another senior Shin Bet official working under Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the agency released a letter Bar had sent to the Cabinet ripping its “unfounded claims,” which he described as “nothing more than a cover for extraneous and fundamentally invalid motives designed to disrupt the ability of the Shin Bet to fulfill its role.”

Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, on Tuesday rejected a petition that sought to bar Netanyahu from bringing his proposal to a Cabinet vote.

In doing so, the justices also ruled against the position of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who had sought to delay the vote until after a full analysis of the “factual and legal basis” for Bar’s dismissal, as well as of the prime minister’s “authority to address the matter at this time.”

Netanyahu told Baharav-Miara on Monday that she lacks the authority to prevent his government from firing Bar.

“Your attempt to override the government’s mandate is a dangerous denial of the government’s express authority,” Netanyahu wrote to the attorney general.

The premier announced earlier this week that he would be seeking the dismissal of Bar. “At all times, but especially in such an existential war, the prime minister must have full confidence in the head of the Shin Bet,” said Netanyahu in a statement on Sunday night.

“But unfortunately, the situation is exactly the opposite—I do not have such confidence. I have an ongoing lack of trust in the Shin Bet chief. A distrust that has only grown over time,” added the statement.

On Thursday, violence erupted at an anti-government protest in Jerusalem as left-wing activists mobilized nationwide ahead of the Cabinet vote on Bar’s dismissal.

Demonstrators attempted to breach a police barricade on Gaza Street near Netanyahu’s residence, leading to clashes with officers. Protesters also blocked traffic in the area.

Footage appeared to show a physical altercation between a police officer and Knesset member Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing The Democrats Party.

Bars’s five-year term would have ended on Oct. 14, 2026.