Knesset committee bars two MKs from voting on Gotliv immunity

Knesset Constitution Committee chair Ophir Katz informed lawmakers Ahmad Tibi and Walid Taha on Monday that they will not be allowed to vote on MK Tali Gotliv’s immunity. Katz said the two did not meet the required 50% attendance threshold in the committee’s discussions on the matter, a mandatory condition for taking part in the final vote.

The move comes after Channel 13 reported last week that three MKs who saw a secret Shin Bet opinion said it stated unequivocally that Gotliv had endangered a service agent, his children and other family members. According to those lawmakers, the classified document also described real examples of Shin Bet employees whose identities were previously exposed and whose lives were significantly put at risk. The intelligence note reportedly stressed that a tweet or post by an official Israeli figure, such as an MK, is taken very seriously by the enemy and creates a real operational security risk.

During last week’s committee debate on Gotliv’s immunity request, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told members that the investigation began after a Shin Bet request and that the agency had warned of a risk of harm to the employee and his family by terrorist organizations. She said, “Exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer is a threat to his personal security and that of his family,” adding that Gotliv had said in the hearing that she committed a criminal offense intentionally and that the indictment concerns exposing a Shin Bet officer during wartime through repeated, deliberate publication.

Gotliv attacked Baharav-Miara at the opening of the hearing, accusing her of “persecuting” them and saying, “You are acting like a criminal organization.” She also said the government acted after October 7 to “bring down the right-wing government” and whitewash the Shin Bet leadership. About a month ago, after Channel 13 revealed that Defense Minister Israel Katz signed the secrecy order, the attorney general announced she would indict Gotliv for unlawfully disclosing classified information after she revealed that the husband of Shikma Bressler worked for the Shin Bet. Gotliv responded on X, “No one intimidates me.” The indictment, filed by the Central District Prosecutor’s Office with the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, says that on January 24, 2024, she posted a screenshot from the website Edna Carnival alleging that Mossad chief David Barnea had been told the Americans intercepted calls between Bressler’s husband and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar days before October 7, and added that her sources were “steel.”