The ministerial committee that oversees the operations of the Israel Security Agency – headed by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana – announced Sunday that is has decided not to extend the security afforded to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's family.
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The panel said that the decision was in line with the assessments of all the security officials present at the hearing – from the Shin Bet security agency, the Mossad, the Israel Police and the National Security Council.
Chief Security Officer in the Prime Minister's Office, Alon Haliva, did not speak in support of extending the family's security. In addition, sources in the committee said the Prime Minister's Office did not present a different view either, contrary to statements by Netanyahu's associates.
This means that Sara, Yair and Avner Netanyahu will be effectively stripped of their security details, which included a driver, as of Monday, Dec. 13.
Netanyahu himself has a security detail as part of his political role, but the committee had ruled in July that the protection for his wife and sons would be removed by the end of the year.
Sunday's decision had rejected the former prime minister's appeal on the matter.
Friday saw Netanyahu file a police complaint against the "Crime Minister" political activist group alleging incitement to violence against his family.
In a video posted on Twitter, Netanyahu urged the committee not to remove his family's security and detailed the recent threats against him, his wife and his sons – including explicit death threats by individuals who are allegedly members of "Crime Minister" – one of the most boisterous anti-Netanyahu groups to have surfaced in recent years.
He further urged the ministers to deal with what he said were several complaints filed with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit over death threats against his family was he alleged were never investigated.
Netanyahu ended his post by calling on the committee to disregard their political and personal considerations and keep the security detail on Netanyahu's family.
"Don't forsake the safety of my wife and children," he said.
In a statement carried by the Jerusalem Post, the Crime Minister organization said that "while the Israeli public is being shown the insane waste of public funds on the needless security detail for the Netanyahu family, the bored leader of the opposition is inciting against those who are demanding to put a stop to the insanity."
They added that "Netanyahu is victimizing himself and lying. There is no red line that man won't cross so that his family can milk the public treasury."
Netanyahu's associates, however, said that the Magen security unit determined that extremism among some in the public posed a danger to Netanyahu's wife and sons "who require continued security."
"Any intelligent person would see the intensity of incitement and threats on social media directed against the former prime minister's wife Sara Netanyahu and his sons Yair and Avner. Such explicit threats to murder members of the Netanyahu family were posted online just yesterday. The committee has given an army of security guards to Idit Silman, Matan Kahana, Ayelet Shaked, Gideon Sa'ar and even Tamar Zandberg and Merav Michaeli who received a fraction of such threats. But the Netanyahu family they are throwing under the bus. Hatred for Netanyahu drives people so crazy that they are willing to put his wife and sons' lives at risk. Inconceivable, an unparalleled scandal. The writing is on the wall," they said.
MK Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, also slammed the ruling.
"This is a political decision that endangers the lives of the Netanyahu family members," he told Israel National News. "The ministerial committee is simply ignoring reality, ignoring the fact that there is an explicit incitement on social media from the anarchist Left to harm Netanyahu and his family.
"The responsibility for what will happen, God forbid, if anyone harms Netanyahu's family, will rest on those who have decided to remove the security and will not be able to evade responsibility."
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