Netanyahu in affidavit to the High Court of Justice: "Ronen Bar is lying - he did not warn, did not act, did not prevent the massacre""

April 27, 2025   

prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu He claimed in an affidavit he submitted to the High Court of Justice today (Sunday) that the statements of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar about warning of war are false - and called the intelligence blindness "the greatest failure in the history of the State of Israel.".

Netanyahu writes: "The principles of action that Bar established in the summary of the security discussion he convened an hour and a quarter before the massacre are the greatest intelligence failure in Israeli history!" - and added: "It is my duty as Prime Minister to reveal to the public what Bar is hiding from him!""

According to Netanyahu, in the summary of the situation assessment, Bar detailed the principles of action, which included: "Readiness to thwart an offensive event - covert medium readiness so as not to create a miscalculation... Readiness, for example, for the time being, to prevent our broad activity in order to avoid a miscalculation given the fact that this is not a leading assumption.".

Netanyahu attacks the use of the term "miscalculation": "Bar's mistaken security concept of maintaining peace in Gaza at all costs led him to the fact that even after a series of significant signs from that night, he clung to his mistaken concept and prevented necessary actions, only for fear that Hamas would interpret these actions as war intentions on the part of Israel and thus go to war against us. While Ronen Bar is talking about 'miscalculation', Hamas has already started the war!".

The Prime Minister claims that "if Bar had called on the IDF to prepare 'with high readiness' and not 'medium and covert', and instructed the IDF to initiate a broad operation immediately, the massacre would have been avoided!" He emphasizes: "For this, Bar bears direct and enormous responsibility for not preventing the massacre!".

Netanyahu refers to Bar's claim that he woke up the system, writing: "He did not wake up the Minister of Defense. He did not wake up the Prime Minister. He did not wake up the IDF soldiers. He did not wake up the standby units in the communities surrounding Gaza. He did not wake up the people who were partying at the 'Nova' party. He did not fulfill his main role that night.".

Netanyahu further claims in the affidavit that the claim that Ronen Bar provided "powerful warnings" regarding Gaza is a lie.

In practice, throughout 2023, Ronen Bar pushed to strengthen the economic situation in the Strip and avoid assassinations in order to maintain peace.

The affidavit states that "Ronen Bar said that Sinwar is a sober leader" and notes that Bar said in cabinet discussions before the massacre that "the Gaza Strip is restrained.".

Netanyahu also alleged political activity by the head of the Shin Bet: "While deploying agents in right-wing demonstrations, Bar fabricated lies about a demand to deploy the Shin Bet in left-wing demonstrations.".

Netanyahu rejects Bar's claim that he asked to exercise Shin Bet powers over protesters and political opponents. "Bar's unfounded claim that I asked him to exercise Shin Bet powers against political opponents whose actions were not accompanied by a threat of violence is baseless and finds no real basis in his affidavit," he wrote.

The Prime Minister refers to the discussion of June 6, 2023, Shafer noted in his affidavit, and claims that the official transcript proves the opposite. According to him, in that discussion he referred to incidents of violence and attempts to harm his family, and requested the inclusion of the legal advisor to the government "so that she can determine the limits of the law in these cases.".

Netanyahu quotes from the transcript of that discussion, in which he asked Barr: "Is it legal to track a person and approach them with a drone - is that allowed?" And Barr replied: "I don't know.".

According to Netanyahu, these words "prove the complete opposite of Bar's false statement: I demanded that the head of the Shin Bet act only in accordance with the law, and for that reason I specifically asked to bring in the legal advisor to clarify the limits of the law.".

In an affidavit submitted by Ronen Bar to the High Court of Justice, it is claimed that Prime Minister Netanyahu demanded from him an opinion that would prevent him from testifying in court. Netanyahu, for his part, in an affidavit submitted today to the High Court of Justice, rejects the claim. "Contrary to Bar's false statement, the Prime Minister never asked to postpone his trial or to cancel it, but quite the opposite. The Prime Minister asked not to delay the trial even by a day.""

Netanyahu presented in his affidavit minutes from a meeting with Ronen Bar that corroborated his claims. Netanyahu was quoted as saying: "I have no problem, I am ready for the investigation, that is not the problem, and I also want to testify, that is important. But I am meeting to give testimony at the Jerusalem District Court starting at the beginning of next month, and it is a public and permanent place whose location and time are publicly announced. So what are we doing about this?".

Later in the meeting, Netanyahu said: "Just as you gave me instructions regarding staying in permanent locations in Jerusalem and Caesarea, there is no way around receiving appropriate instructions regarding the permanent location of the court. I mean, in seventeen days, on December 2nd, I will enter into this matter. We cannot wait and say, 'Let's see what happens then.'".

""I think there are solutions, there are even quite simple solutions, but the solutions need to be provided so that I can, on the one hand, give my testimony and, on the other hand, not die and all the legal teams, judges, etc. don't die with me. I ask you to present to me by the end of the week a clear and detailed defense plan of yours for the entire period of my testimony that addresses the risk to me and to all the residents of the building where I will be...".

Ronen Bar replied: "I haven't learned the story of the trial yet. I will give you a detailed answer to all the questions.".

The Prime Minister emphasized: "I am not interested in delaying one day. They decided what they decided, I want to show up there. To show up there, you have to act quickly.".

In another meeting between the two, the Prime Minister said: "I think there are solutions.".

The head of the Shin Bet replied: "Okay, we will come up with a basket of solutions." The prime minister emphasized again: "We should not do anything that will delay the trial.".

After the evidence was presented, the affidavit stated: "Summary: Ronen Bar is lying. The Prime Minister never asked to postpone or cancel his trial. On the contrary. As is clear from the text, the Prime Minister insisted on holding his trial without any delay, offered alternatives for the location of the hearings and even urged Ronen Bar to present suitable solutions.".

In addition to the open affidavit, confidential appendices were submitted to the court.

The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir In response to the affidavit submitted by the Prime Minister: "Ronen Bar, a liar. I said a year and a half ago that he should be thrown out, it's a shame they didn't listen to me. Better late than never. Ronen Bar home. Now!""

Bar Oona: Inaccuracies, biased quotes, and half-truths

The ousted head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar, who has lost the trust of the entire government, responded this evening to the Prime Minister's response affidavit:

""All of the details raised in the open and confidential affidavit that I submitted are absolutely true, all of them backed up by numerous documents that I chose, as the head of a state organization, to submit to the court only. The truth is that an opinion was dictated to me and given to me on behalf of the Prime Minister, which I was required to sign and which in practice does not allow the Prime Minister to testify continuously in his trial.".

""This phenomenon of pressure from the Prime Minister to influence professional opinions has occurred several times. The truth is that I was required to provide information about Israeli citizens who are protest activists. And the truth is that I was required by the Prime Minister because in a situation of constitutional crisis I must obey the Prime Minister and not the court," claimed Bar.

He harshly attacked Netanyahu's affidavit, noting: "The words the Prime Minister wrote in his affidavit are full of inaccuracies, biased quotes, and half-truths aimed at taking things out of context and changing reality. An example of distortion that is particularly prominent in the Prime Minister's words concerns the assessment of the situation that I conducted on the night of October 7. In this context, the Prime Minister chose to omit the numerous operational instructions that were given and even claimed twice that I did not instruct to pass the intelligence to the military secretary. The truth is the opposite, as documented in the Shin Bet's operational diary and submitted to the Prime Minister as part of the investigation, where it is clearly stated: 'The main points of the discussion must be passed on to the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff.'".

He said, "Contrary to what is claimed in the affidavit, all the investigations show that it was the Shin Bet that woke up the security establishment on the night of October 7. Senior security establishment officials took responsibility for the intelligence failure; however, the prime minister never took responsibility for the policy of silence and funding for Hamas, which was dictated directly by the prime minister. This historic failure of the wrong policy that built Hamas eroded deterrence and contributed to fears of miscalculation in the decision-making of senior security establishment officials, even that night.".

""On this day, the necessity of establishing a state investigation committee that will enable the investigation of the truth, to which all Israeli citizens are entitled, is even more acute. Along with the necessity of the head of the Shin Bet's ability to withstand the pressures exerted on him and the importance of the decision before the court.".