Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar filed a sweeping defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Central District Court on Wednesday morning to counter the prime minister's assertion he never received repeated warnings before the October 7 disaster. It also challenges the narrative that information was hidden from him and dismantles accusations of alleged "failures and crimes" by senior defense officials. The lawsuit argues these accusations are a calculated attempt to divert public scrutiny from Netanyahu's own culpability, shifting the blame exclusively to Bar.
The document outlines how Bar issued unprecedented warnings to the prime minister on an almost weekly basis during the months preceding the massacre. These briefings highlighted the imminent threat of a multi-arena conflict, with a specific focus on the Gaza Strip and the High Holy Days in the runup to Oct. 7, 2023. While Bar proposed operational initiatives to eliminate senior Hamas officials, Netanyahu systematically dismissed or ignored these warnings and strategic plans, it claims.
According to the lawsuit, Netanyahu enforced a rigid policy of "quiet at any cost" in the Gaza Strip for years. This approach included explicit directives to maintain calm, avoid military confrontations, sideline Gaza as a secondary theater, and entrench Hamas as a governing authority. The policy enabled the ongoing military funding and strengthening of Hamas through financial support from Qatar – a strategy the Shin Bet vehemently opposed for years, arguing against the political echelon's assumption Hamas was effectively deterred. Netanyahu bluntly blocked every attempt by Bar to influence these policy decisions.
Furthermore, the lawsuit introduces unequivocal evidence from the night of October 7, undermining the allegation the Shin Bet "withheld information." Contrary to the prime minister's claims, the lawsuit claims the Shin Bet distributed an urgent alert to all security agencies beginning at 3:03 a.m. The Military Secretariat in the Prime Minister's Office, along with other defense bodies, received comprehensive updates on the unfolding intelligence picture. Simultaneously, Bar ordered an immediate update to Netanyahu's military secretary before the invasion even commenced, strictly adhering to the communication protocols established by the prime minister himself – a fact his former military secretary recently corroborated, Bar claims. These actions are thoroughly documented in the Shin Bet command center's digital logs, thoroughly refuting the accusations. Crucially, the prime minister never contacted the Shin Bet chief and failed to intervene even after the massacre was underway, it notes.
The lawsuit reveals Bar traveled to the Shin Bet headquarters on the night between October 6 and October 7 to conduct emergency situation assessments. The filing indicates explicit instructions were given between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. to update the prime minister's military secretariat, and these directives are permanently logged in the office's computer systems.
