Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar filed a multi-million-shekel defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the Central District Court on Wednesday. The complaint presents documents and testimony that Bar says contradict Netanyahu’s claims that he was not warned about the October 7 attack and that information had been withheld from him.

According to the complaint, Bar warned Netanyahu repeatedly in the months before the attack about the possibility of an imminent, multi-front escalation, with particular concern about Gaza and the Tishrei Yamim Tovim. Bar also proposed steps to thwart senior Hamas officials, but the complaint says his warnings and proposals were dismissed or ignored.

The filing accuses Netanyahu of pursuing a policy of “quiet at any cost” in Gaza: delaying confrontation, treating Gaza as a secondary arena and preserving Hamas as its governing authority. It says the policy included allowing Qatari funds to strengthen Hamas despite the Shin Bet’s objections and relying on the assessment that Hamas was deterred.

The lawsuit also challenges the claim that the Shin Bet withheld information on the night of October 7. It says the Shin Bet began sending an alert to security agencies at 3:03 a.m. and that the Prime Minister’s Military Secretariat was updated. Bar also instructed that Netanyahu’s military secretary be notified before the attack, in keeping with communication procedures Netanyahu had established, the complaint says. The instructions were recorded in Shin Bet operations logs. Bar’s filing further says Netanyahu did not respond or intervene after the attack began.

The complaint argues that Netanyahu knew the Shin Bet was not responsible for deploying military forces or overseeing civilian events, and calls his repeated accusations against Bar false and defamatory. Bar says he filed the suit after a prolonged public campaign against him, the lack of a state commission of inquiry and reports of alleged attempts to falsify protocols.

Bar said he accepts responsibility for the Shin Bet’s failures. “As the head of the service, I bear responsibility for the Shin Bet’s failure in its part in providing the intelligence required regarding the October 7 attack and its timing. Accordingly, bowing my head before the bereaved families, I resigned from my position,” he said.

He said he had waited for a state commission of inquiry to examine both the Shin Bet’s work and its failures, but decided to sue after Netanyahu’s recent statements. “In light of the Prime Minister’s unrestrained outburst, I decided not to remain silent and to show the public the motives behind such improper behavior,” Bar said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)