Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, announced his resignation, effective June 15, on Monday. Bar was nominated by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Oct. 11, 2021, and assumed office two days later.

Clashes have occurred between Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the security service ever since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, where approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed and an additional 251 taken hostage, according to the Washington Post.

The cabinet voted unanimously to dismiss Bar on March 21, which was supposed to take effect April 10 but was frozen by Israel’s Supreme Court.

This comes as the prime minister has been forced to testify in corruption trials for allegations of accepting payments from Qatar, which has been referred to as ‘Qatargate’ by many in Israeli society who oppose Netanyahu.

Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid, in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, said about the firing, “Of those responsible for the greatest failure in the country’s history, only one remains holding on to the chair.”

Opponents of Netanyahu’s government have criticized the decision. It is also seen as an attempt to undermine Israeli democracy, which many of Netanyahu’s opponents have been critical of since the attempted judicial overhaul, which was proposed in January 2023.

In an English translation of his sworn testimony that Bar submitted to the Israeli high court, Bar accused the prime minister of dismissing him, “not on a professional level but rather [due to] the expectation of personal loyalty on my part to the prime minister.”

“I note that the prime minister expressed to me, on more than one occasion, his desire to see the Shin Bet act against citizens involved in protest activity and demonstrations against the government,” Bar said in further testimony, accusing Netanyahu of making requests to crack down on protests calling on an end to the war in Gaza.

Moreover, there are accusations of the cabinet’s reasoning behind his firing. 

“[The] origin [of my dismissal] does not lie in the professional realm but in a demand for personal loyalty to the prime minister,” he said in the testimony.

Escalating his claims, Bar went into detail about instances in which the prime minister allegedly demanded personal loyalty. 

“It was made clear to me that in the event of a constitutional crisis, I would be expected to obey the prime minister and not the high court of Justice,” Bar said. “I refused to draft a legal opinion whose aim was effectively to prevent the possibility of the prime minister continuing to testify in his trial,” he added, referring to the current scandals involving the corruption trial and the prime minister’s office.

Netanyahu has accused Bar of lying to the court and trying to evade responsibility for Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel, writing in his testimony, “Bar’s blindness is the greatest intelligence failure in the history of the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu’s affidavit “is full of inaccuracies,” Bar said in a rebuttal to the prime minister’s accusations.

Many families of current and released hostages have demanded a state inquiry into the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including Yarden Bibas, whose wife, Shiri, and two young children, Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and 9 months respectively, were killed in captivity.

Following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the security agency has been involved in hostage rescue operations, including the rescue of Noa Argamani, who became the face of the hostages taken at the Nova festival. Her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, who was seen on a motorcycle with her during capture, remains in captivity.

Bar has authorized an investigation into the prime minister and some of his allies, including Jonatan Urich, an advisor, and Eli Feldstein, Netanyahu’s spokesperson, for allegedly taking money from the Qatari government in exchange for favorable interests in Israel. Urich and Feldstein are suspected to be involved with employment at a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including interactions with foreign agents while working for the prime minister.
In an investigation, the agency took responsibility, saying it failed to prevent the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 despite prior intelligence warnings. The Shin Bet did not prevent the massacre of October 7,” Ronen Bar said in a summary of findings reported in NPR.. “As the one who led the organization, I will carry this heavy burden on my shoulders for my entire life.”