Bereaved father’s outburst halts High Court session on security chief’s firing

An Israeli High Court of Justice hearing on the dismissal of a security chief’s dismissal was suspended after a bereaved father continued heckled the proceedings while others tried to burst into the packed courtroom.

The hearing, which was streamed live, eventually resumed without members of the public inside.

Itzik Bontzel, whose son died during the war with Hamas, denounced Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Ronen Bar, saying his hands “are dripping in blood” and should be fired for misjudging warning signs before Hamas’ October 7 attacks.

Referring to Jerusalem’s military cemetery, Bontzel told Chief Justice Isaac Amit, “Mount Herzl is filled with the blood of our children, you will sit on [Passover] night, we have a missing chair. A court whose authority I recognize is dealing with the hearing of the head of the Shin Bet, I call on you to listen to us, the bereaved parents, we are in a time of war, the blood of our sons is crying out!”

The three-justice panel was hearing petitions against the government’s dismissal of Bar in a case that is escalating into a constitutional crisis.

The government voted to fire Bar on March 21, but the High Court of Justice issued a temporary restraining order against the move until it could hear petitions against the move.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he lost trust in Bar after the October 7 attack and that he should have resigned after the Shin Bet completed its internal investigation into the failures leading up to Hamas’ attack. Bar and the petitioners say his dismissal is politically motivated and influenced by Netanyahu’s conflict of interest regarding the Qatargate investigation.

The government’s lawyers argue that Bar’s opening of the Qatargate investigation is a conflict of interest to help him keep his job.

Two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key advisers, Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, were arrested on March 31 as part of an ongoing investigation into potentially illegal connections between Israeli officials and Qatar. Urich and Feldstein are suspected of working for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service, is responsible for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, internal security, VIP protection, and cybersecurity. The only Shin Bet director to ever resign before the end of his five-year term was Carmi Gillon in the aftermath of the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Israeli law lets the prime minister and government dismiss the Shin Bet chief without stating a reason, but courts can review if the decision was made lawfully. But there is a legal question of whether the dismissal must first go through the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee. The committee assesses the integrity and suitability of candidates for top civil roles, including the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad, the police commissioner, the military’s chief of staff, and the Bank of Israel governor.