Former Shin Ben Director Yoram Cohen told Army Radio on Thursday that the security agency had advised against assigning a security detail to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's two sons, Yair and Avner Netanyahu, saying this was unnecessary.
However, he said the Shin Bet's stance was ignored and the prime minister's sons were provided with full security services anyway.
"Our recommendation was not adopted," said Cohen, who was appointed by Netanyahu and headed the Shin Bet from 2011 to 2016. Yair, 26, and Avner, 23, are the first children of any Israeli prime minister to receive full, state-funded security, including a vehicle and a driver.
Cohen said the person who made the final decision to approve the security detail for the pair was their father, and that this had been recommended by a ministerial committee that had heard the opinions of three professional security organizations: the Shin Bet, the Counterterrorism Bureau, and the head of the security branch at the Prime Minister's Office.
"There's a ministerial committee that hears opinions and then the ministers make a decision and submit it to the prime minister, and then he [the prime minister] determines who will carry out the decision," Cohen said.
In response to Cohen's comments, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Thursday disputing his assertions.
"Yoram Cohen cautioned the prime minister about the need to increase security arrangements for the prime minister's sons after Operation Pillar of Defense [in 2012] and in the wake of other security incidents," the statement said.
"Cohen even asked the prime minister to consider transferring Yair [then a university student] from Hebrew University to another university, even though he had a security detail, because according to assessments, his personal security was not sufficient in the face of renewed threats.
"After Operation Pillar of Defense and other security incidents, there was growing concern for the safety for the prime minister's sons, since they were well-known public figures for many years.
"Security for the prime minister's sons, like security for other individuals, is decided by a ministerial committee and by a public panel that reviews the entirety of the threats and receives briefings from time to time on the security situation and the current threats. These [committees] are the one that decided that the prime minister's sons should be assigned security," the statement said.
The decision has not been reviewed since Netanyahu was re-elected in 2015.
