The head of the Shin Bet's Jewish division called suspects in Judea and Samaria "scumbags" and said that they are being detained "even without evidence" for a few days.
In the conversation, which was revealed on the program "Seven with Ayala Hasson" on "Kan News," the senior Shin Bet official was heard telling the commander of the Shai Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Avishai Mualem: "Put them in detention cells, with mice."
During the conversation, the head of the Shin Bet's Jewish division added: "We always want to detain them for questioning, as many as possible. Look at how Shin Bet interrogations are conducted with them. We detain these 'scumbags' even without evidence for a few days."
Muallem warned: "They will tear us apart for this."
The head of the brigade replied: "It is being handled by the office of the head of the Shin Bet, in front of the Minister of Defense."
Continue the conversation:
Commander of the SY Company: What would I arrest them for, though?
Head of the Jewish Division in the Shin Bet: First of all, you would have caught them in a vehicle from the Gilad farm, maybe there were flammable materials there, maybe they smelled of gasoline.
Commander of the SY Company: Forget it, if we don't catch anything, what do we do? Just arrest them?
Head of the Shin Bet Jewish Division: We've been in this movie many times before, so how come there are no arrests? How come there are no checkpoints? They come from Binyamin Litzhar, continue to Givat Zibi, there, to Havat Gilad, in each of these places they have to be stopped.
Commander of the SY: Where was the army?
Head of the Jewish Division in the Shin Bet: The army doesn't know, it's not an army, the army is in Lebanon and Gaza. It's not an army, it's Chikmok, it's Phalangists, it's settlers themselves.
Shin Bet's response to 'Kan News': "This is a discourse that refers solely to lawbreakers suspected of terrorism, who took the law into their own hands. However, since the content of the words and the style in which they were spoken are not in keeping with the service's values and professional conduct, the head of the service instructed that an investigation be conducted with the head of the division, and the results of the investigation will be presented to him."
The Shin Bet added: "It should be emphasized that the arrest of Israeli citizens suspected of terrorist activity was made after the exercise of professional judgment and a careful examination of the intelligence information by professional elements, including senior officials, and will be reviewed again by external and independent judicial review by the court. This does not justify expressions such as those made during the conversation."
Chief of Staff Avishai Mualem, who was placed on forced leave, is suspected in the affair of associates of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, when according to the legal materials, he is suspected of leaking classified information to the minister and of allegedly inappropriate conduct in handling nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria.
Additionally, Mualem is suspected of having, together with another officer from the same district, in his role as deputy commander of the SY Police Department and upon his appointment to this position as a permanent position, committed unusual actions within the scope of their duties in order to influence their promotion in the police.
Additional suspicions against Mualem: Assisted in erasing a businessman's criminal record in exchange for joining his wife's business as a partner; failed to report concerns about terrorist attacks abroad and bribed a senior figure.
Muallem himself denied the suspicions attributed to him.
Commentator Amit Segal wrote: "The investigation against Avishai Mualem began because he refused the Shin Bet's demands. In light of this recording, it is clear that he should receive a promotion, and the head of the Shin Bet's Jewish division should, at best, fly home."
Media personality Shimon Riklin: "Lawyer Ephraim Damari, defense attorney for Avishai Mualem, commander of the SY-Y, says: 'What was published tonight in the recording of the head of the Jewish department is just the salad before the main course. We will present the main course tomorrow in an exclusive interview with more additional recordings on the 'Riklin & Co.' program tomorrow at 6 p.m. on Channel 14.'"
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