Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected petitions against the plan to involve the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency (ISA), in combating crime in the Arab sector. “I saw no reason to issue additional orders,” Justice Daphne Barak-Erez ruled, contradicting the Attorney General’s position and effectively removing the legal obstacle that had blocked the move until now.
2+National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had argued three years ago that the Shin Bet should participate in efforts to crack down on crime in the Arab community, given the expanding scope of the problem. According to him, during that period, “the Attorney General and Ronen Bar prevented bringing the Shin Bet into the fight against crime.”
Responding to the High Court decision, Ben-Gvir said that “now, Mansour Abbas can only hope for the rise of a left-wing government that will allow him to immediately stop all the moves that Minister May Golan and I have led, so that God forbid we don’t discover his involvement in transferring billions to crime and terror organizations.” He went on to address Abbas directly, saying the immunity granted to him by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has ended.
2+Social Equality Minister May Golan said: “Those who need to provide answers today are the committee of Arab local council heads, left-wing organizations, and Mazen Ghanaim. They tried to stop the fight against criminals who are murdering in Arab society. Instead of joining us in the war against crime organizations—they’re asking to enable their continued funding by channeling money from the Bennett-Lapid-Abbas government.”
The ruling comes after the government approved the plan to bring the Shin Bet into the fight against Arab sector crime about two months ago. As first reported by C14, the plan includes diverting approximately 497 million shekels from the five-year plan—550—to strengthen the fight against crime organizations.
2+Numerous left-wing organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israel Democracy Institute, opposed the move, with some petitioning the High Court to torpedo it completely or at least delay it. At the same time, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also submitted a legal opinion against bringing the Shin Bet into the matter.