Replacing Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar with a “loyalist” could lead to the dismantling of Israel’s democratic institutions, Israel Democracy Institute Vice President of Research Prof. Suzie Navot warned on Monday.
The warning came ahead of Tuesday’s consequential High Court hearing over the legality of the government’s decision last month to fire Bar.
According to Navot, who is also a professor of constitutional law, “As we’ve learned from other countries that have experienced democratic backsliding, appointments and dismissals in security agencies can be a tool for taking control of them. This is particularly true in countries led by populist leaders – those who were democratically elected but dismantled democracy to remain in power.
“In those countries, heads of security agencies who were replaced with ‘loyalists’ effectively aided the takeover of the rest of the state’s institutions, of the information and oversight mechanisms, and of the centers of power in the country, and are used to silence criticism of the government,” Navot wrote.
'This danger is not theoretical'
Earlier in her comments, she mentioned that “what is at stake in this hearing is much bigger than Ronen Bar. This is about the ability of future heads of the Shin Bet to fulfill their duties, to lead the organization with a sense of civic duty, and to express professional positions without fear. Ronen Bar’s letter shows that this danger is not theoretical.”
The letter she referenced was a seven-page letter published on Friday, in which Bar revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pressured him to act to delay the prime minister’s testimony in his ongoing criminal case.
“If it becomes possible to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet under these conditions – in an irregular manner, due to claims of distrust, without a proper factual basis, without a hearing, without a committee, without examining conflicts of interest, without working within existing proper procedures – what will be the fate of all the other senior officeholders in Israel’s public service?” Navot asked.
“After all, they, too, could be dismissed in this way. This could have dramatic, far-reaching implications for the independence and professionalism of the entire public service.”
Navot said, “The head of the Shin Bet cannot, therefore, be a “position of trust” for the prime minister or the government. Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary, and Poland illustrate that the replacement of professionals with regime “loyalists” helped turn the security agencies into tools of the regime, bound to the rulers in a way that nullifies their subordination to the law – and to democracy in general.”