Shin Bet comes under fire after official pushes police to illegally crack down on settler violence

Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet has come under fire in recent days after leaked recordings revealed that its official responsible for Jewish violence in Judea and Samaria pushed the Israel Police to crack down against the phenomenon with illegal means.

In response, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of local authorities in Judea and Samaria, called for the total abolition of the Shin Bet’s Jewish division.

“For decades, the Jewish Division has not been a division for the prevention of terrorism, but rather an intelligence agency that operates solely against settlers and settlement in Judea and Samaria using illegitimate means.”

The council said that the recordings “clearly exposed the positions and methods of the head of the division, but these methods are unfortunately familiar from the division's past activities, and therefore it has no right to exist.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is responsible for the police, demanded the dismissal of the Shin Bet official and called on the prime minister to summon Shin Bet director Ronen Bar for a clarification.

“Under Ronen Bar, the Jewish Division in Shin Bet operated like a mafia, criminalizing settlers and using illegal tactics,” said Ben Gvir, who was a defense attorney representing many settlers accused of violence before his political career.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) called the recordings “a real danger to democracy,” and said the premier would “demand a thorough examination of the activities of the Shin Bet's Jewish division.”

On Saturday, Kan News released a first batch of leaked recordings of phone calls between Avishai Moalem, the currently suspended commander of the Investigations and Intelligence Unit (Yamar) in the police’s Judea and Samaria (Shai) Division, and his counterpart in the Shin Bet, the commander of the Jewish Division, who is only known as “Aleph.”

During the conversation, Aleph and Moalem talked about arrests of violent settler youth. “We always want to arrest them for interrogation, as much as possible. Look at how the Shin Bet interrogations are conducted with them. We arrest these ‘shmucks’ even without evidence for a few days,” said Aleph.

When Moalem responded, “They’ll tear us apart for this,” Aleph reassured him that “it’s being handled by the Shin Bet Director’s Office with the defense minister.”

Aleph counseled Moalem to order the arrest of settler activists on pretenses: “First, you’d catch them in a car from [the Israeli settlement] Havat Gilad, maybe there’d be incendiary materials, maybe they smell like fuel.”

The Shin Bet official also talked dismissively about the Israel Defense Forces, which is also involved in maintaining security in certain areas of Judea and Samaria.

“This isn’t the army; the army is in Lebanon and Gaza. It’s not the army, it’s a joke, it’s phalangists, it’s the settlers themselves.”

In more recent recordings published by Channel 12 News, Aleph is heard chiding Moalem for releasing one of five detainees due to a High Court order.

“What? I don’t know about this,” Aleph told Moalem, “I’ll deal with it soon. But in any case, let’s pull another one from the reserves. We need to make more arrests here. Today there’s a gathering of all those scumbags at Tapuach Junction… are you guys going to break it up?”

When Moalem explained that there was no legal basis for this but that he sent officers to film and gather evidence, Aleph replied: “No, we can’t allow them to hold gatherings, we can’t… (when) they gather, riot police will show up, get in there, film them for evidence. Maybe they’ll be dumb enough to do something—arrest them for interfering with a police officer.”

In another conversation, Moalem told Aleph about the arrest of an activist. Aleph responded, “Good arrest, good arrest, it came at the right time, this… son of a bitch.”

During a discussion about another planned arrest, Moalem told Aleph he won’t arrest an activist without a warrant, which can only be issued if there is a criminal offense.

“What do I care if it’s an offense or not? Let’s say it’s not an offense, even though in my eyes it is an offense,” Aleph began.

Moalem cut in: “What’s this ‘What do I care’? Bro, we don’t work like that, we’re not amateurs… So I’m telling you again, in the end, there’s no offense here. We spoke with the legal counsel – not ours, but the legal counsel of the whole Israel Police.”

“Yeah, I know that game, but we don’t go to the legal counsel for every person who’s suspected of something, right,” Aleph responded.

Another conversation between the two escalated into a clash after Aleph accused Moalem of not updating him about an arrest.

“Listen, Avishai, I’ll tell you something. If you keep not answering, it won’t be the district commander – it’ll be above the district commander,” Aleph said.

“I don’t want to work with you… Go to the police chief, to the district commander, to the Shin Bet, to the prime minister – I’m not working with you,“ Moalem replied and ended the call.

Moalem’s wife, the attorney Ziona Moalem, told Ynet News that Shin Bet officials threatened the police commander that he would be dismissed if he didn’t follow their demands.

“They demanded that he make arrests, and he wasn't willing to be their rubber stamp. He insisted on receiving evidence or the Defense Minister's signature, and when he didn't receive it, he refused to make the arrests. This cost him his investigation at the police station and, in effect, thwarted his promotion in the police,” Ziona Moalem claimed.

Superintendent Avishai Moalem is currently suspended due to an investigation of suspicions that he leaked classified information to National Security Minister Ben Gvir and several other charges, including attempts to further his advancement by illegal means, bribery, and others.

The recordings also shed new light on the years-long conflict between the Shin Bet and the police over the lack of law enforcement in Judea and Samaria, especially regarding violent attacks by some groups of radical settlers against Palestinian civilians.

Relations between the security agencies took a turn for the worse since Ben Gvir took over the National Security Ministry.

In recent years, the Shin Bet has increasingly operated independently of the police by preferring to work with Border Police forces and relying on sign-offs on arrest warrants from former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

However, when Israel Katz took over as defense minister, he announced the stop of the use of administrative detention against Jewish settlers, which had functioned as an effective, if not always legal, tool to curb the activities of violent settlers.

Administrative detention allows the state to temporarily detain an individual without a trial if they are determined to be an imminent security risk.