A Shin Bet official was arrested on suspicion he had leaked classified information to unauthorized entities, the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department (PID) revealed on Tuesday.
The official, who has been under arrest for six days, is suspected of having transferred classified Shin Bet information to a journalist and an elected official.
The information in question was not mentioned. However, Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal hinted that it had to do a report of his on March 23, in which he revealed a document that appeared to show that the Shin Bet had launched an investigation into the infiltration of Kahanism into the Israel Police.
The Kahana Chai (“Kahana is Alive”), or “Kach” for short, is designated a terror organization according to Israeli law. Named after Rabbi Meir Kahana, the movement endorses racist policies against Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.
National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the Israeli police, belonged to the movement in the past. Although he has since declared that he is no longer affiliated with it, in recent years he attended and spoke at memorial ceremonies for Kahane.
Gag order lifted
The investigation had been under gag order since April 6. However, in addition to Segal’s hints, Likud MK Tally Gotliv intentionally violated the order on Monday. After revealing the main details of the case, Gotliv claimed in a post on X that the gag order was intended to shield Shin Bet head Ronen Bar from criticism, and did not have to with national security.
Gotliv has intentionally violated a series of gag orders since taking office in late 2022, claiming that she has the right to do so as part of her parliamentary immunity. She is currently under a criminal investigation for revealing in 2023 that the husband of Prof. Shikma Bressler, one of the leaders of the protests against the government’s judicial reforms, was a Shin Bet employee.
According to Israeli law, the PID has the authority to investigate Shin Bet employees after receiving special approvals.
“Despite the existence of a gag order on all details of the case, unfortunately, the order was blatantly violated, and details from the ongoing investigation were published illegally,” the PID said in a statement early Tuesday morning.
“In light of the dissemination of partial and incorrect information, it was decided to lift the gag order in order to halt the continued spread of misleading information,” the statement added.
