Ex-Shin Bet Chief Says He Notified Netanyahu of Feldstein Arrest Immediately

Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said he personally informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the arrest of Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein shortly after it happened, according to testimony published Wednesday for the first time. The report says Netanyahu and his office were briefed at an early stage of the investigation, while the case was still under a complete gag order and tightly restricted to a very small circle.

Bar explained that once he understood the suspect was a person connected in some way to the Prime Minister’s Office and that an arrest was needed for the investigation, he insisted on updating Netanyahu himself immediately after the arrest. He said this was an unusual step that investigators and law enforcement did not view favorably, but that he considered important because of the trust relationship between him and Netanyahu. He said he was approved to deliver a brief, limited notice about the arrest and its general reason, though he did not remember whether he was allowed to mention the Bild leak specifically or only a general leak-of-secret case.

In his account, Bar said that right after the arrest, once Netanyahu was awake, he relayed the update by phone using the prime minister’s close security guard’s phone. Netanyahu responded with surprise, and Bar said he could not elaborate. About three hours later, at a ceremony at Mount Herzl, Netanyahu asked him for a few more details, but Bar again declined to comment further. Bar said Netanyahu did not pressure him during that exchange.

The article also says that, according to suspicions, Jonathan Urich, one of Netanyahu’s closest associates, erased the contents of his mobile phone within a day of Feldstein’s arrest. Netanyahu has already testified in the case, but was not asked whether he passed the Shin Bet information on to anyone else. The current information indicates the arrest reached the Prime Minister’s Office very soon after it took place.