Attorney General: Gottlieb Endangered a Shin Bet Employee and Deliberately Broke the Law

The Knesset Committee on Tuesday held a second discussion of MK Tali Gottlieb’s request for immunity from criminal prosecution. During the hearing, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told committee members that the investigation into Gottlieb was opened following a request from the Shin Bet, and that the agency had warned of a risk that terrorist organizations could harm the employee and his family. She also said that “a top-secret Shin Bet opinion will be made available for your review in the committee chair’s office (MK Ofir Katz).”

In response, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen shouted at her, “Criminal!” and chaos broke out in the hearing. “Revealing the identity of a Shin Bet officer constitutes a threat to his personal safety and that of his family,” Baharav-Miara continued. “Gottlieb said yesterday in the hearing that she committed a criminal offense intentionally. The indictment concerns revealing the identity of a Shin Bet officer during wartime. The publication, again and again, was done intentionally and repeatedly. This is not an accidental disclosure, but a deliberate one.”

At the start of the hearing, Gottlieb lashed out at Baharav-Miara: “You are persecuting us. You are acting like a criminal organization. You have trampled the attorney general’s office underfoot, with callousness and insensitivity.” Gottlieb continued, “You acted with a clear purpose after the horrors of October 7, to topple the right-wing government and whitewash the Shin Bet leadership.”

The attorney general also noted that “the MK did not appear for questioning and did not confront the suspicions against her,” and said this was the first time her claims had been raised in the committee hearings. She then said that “filing the indictment is justified, it will show that there is a duty to protect Shin Bet personnel.”

At yesterday’s hearing, Baharav-Miara told committee members that “the indictment against Gottlieb was filed based on a professional, substantive, and good-faith exercise of discretion,” and asked to reject her immunity request, since “none of the grounds for immunity apply to her.”

As recalled, about three weeks ago, after Channel 13 revealed that Defense Minister Israel Katz had signed the confidentiality certificate, the attorney general announced her decision to file an indictment against MK Gottlieb for the offense of disclosing and publishing classified information in violation of the Shin Bet law, after she revealed that Shikma Bresler’s partner works for the service. Gottlieb responded on her X account and wrote, “I will not be intimidated.”

According to the indictment, which was filed by the Central District Prosecutor’s Office with the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, on January 24, 2024 Gottlieb posted a screenshot on her account from the website “Edna Carnaval,” showing an article claiming that “Mossad chief Dadi Barnea received notice from the Americans that they intercepted conversations between Bresler’s husband from the Shin Bet and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, days before October 7.” Alongside the screenshot, which contained the full name of the Shin Bet officer, MK Gottlieb added her own caption, claiming that “my sources are ironclad.”

In May last year, Channel 13 first reported that the Shin Bet had sent the State Attorney’s Office an opinion regarding MK Gottlieb, according to which she harmed state security when she revealed the identity of Professor Shikma Bresler’s partner as a Shin Bet officer, and endangered the lives of agency personnel.