Netanyahu cancels security chief’s appointment amid backlash
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rescinded his appointment of a new security chief on Tuesday morning after facing a backlash from within his governing coalition.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on March 25, 2025. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL
Netanyahu announced he withdrew Vice-Admiral (ret.) Eli Sharvit to become head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) one day after tapping the former navy chief for the position.
Netanyahu’s coalition partners and members of his Likud party opposed Sharvit over his reported participation in protests against the government’s controversial judicial overhaul initiative.
Netanyahu announced Sharvit’s appointment on Monday despite a temporary injunction against the dismissal of current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. The government cited a loss of trust in Bar for his dismissal. Netanyahu and Bar have been blaming each other over what was known before Hamas’ October 7 attack and whether it could have been prevented.
Hours after the Israeli government voted to dismiss Bar on March 21, the High Court of Justice issued a temporary restraining order against the move. The court is expected to hold a hearing on the matter by April 8.
Netanyahu’s backtrack comes as the police arrested two of the Prime Minister’s aides, Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein on Monday as part of an ongoing investigation into potential illegal connections between Israeli officials and Qatar. Feldstein is suspected of being involved in the theft and leak of classified military documents. Although Netanyahu is not a suspect, investigators questioned the Prime Minister at his office on Monday.
The Movement for Quality Government, one of the petitioners against Bar’s dismissal, called Sharvit’s appointment “an attempt to determine facts on the ground before the substantive legal hearing took place, as the Qatargate investigation concerning the prime minister’s associates underway in the background.”
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.
