The Shin Bet: Questions and Answers

Photos: Amos Ben Gershom, National Photo Collection; Yossi Zamir, Shatil-Stok

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) is a covert organization with far-reaching powers and wide-ranging surveillance and suppression capabilities. The Prime Minister’s efforts to take control of it via political appointments poses a grave danger that threatens the basic rights of all of the State’s citizens and residents. This concern is magnified if other groups responsible for overseeing the Shin Bet's activities, such as the Legal Advisor to the Government and court judges, also become political appointees and tools of the Prime Minister. 

We prepared this Q&A so that you can learn more about the Shin Bet and the dangers and possible scenarios if it becomes an organization of political appointments. 

What is the role of the Shin Bet?

The Shin Bet is a clandestine security organization whose main role is to prevent harm to State security and democratic institutions by citizens and residents of the State and Palestinians in the occupied territories. 

What powers does the Shin Bet have? 

The Shin Bet is a powerful organization that is legally allowed to engage in spying, conducting surveillance, and broadly invading the privacy of all citizens and residents. The Shin Bet is authorized to wiretap any person with the Prime Minister's approval, without judicial involvement; it then sends the wiretapping results to the Prime Minister. The Shin Bet has interpreted the authority granted to it to conduct secret searches of premises to include the authority to conduct secret computer searches. The Shin Bet also has a database of the communications data of all citizens and anyone using Israeli communication infrastructure. This database allows the Shin Bet to draw an extensive personal profile of every person, and access to it requires no judicial warrant. The Shin Bet is also authorized to conduct investigations under harsh conditions and without documentation, and it can recommend administrative detention for citizens and residents of the State, as well as residents of the occupied territories. 

How can the Shin Bet's powers harm human rights? 

The Shin Bet's extensive powers pose a threat to basic human rights, including the right to liberty, privacy, freedom of expression, and due process. 

A clear example of the Shin Bet's extensive powers and their negative implications for human rights is administrative detentions, which violate the basic rights to liberty and due process. Those imprisoned under administrative detention may be detained for extended periods, without charges or trial, based on the Shin Bet's classified intelligence information. This practice is mainly used against Palestinians from the occupied territories, but it has also been used against citizens and residents of the state. Another example is the use of the Shin Bet's surveillance powers against citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic to locate COVID patients and identify everyone who had contact with them. The Shin Bet's activities during COVID exposed its surveillance program using the communications data of all citizens and residents – a program that is unusual compared to democratic countries and which violates citizens' privacy and freedom. 

Over the years, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel has filed many petitions against Shin Bet practices and powers due to the harm they cause human rights. ACRI has petitioned against the Shin Bet's use of torture against Palestinian detainees from the occupied territories, against the Shin Bet's improper practice of summoning Arab political activists for warning interrogations, and against the use of the Shin Bet's surveillance program against citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, we have pending petitions regarding the Shin Bet’s involvement in criminal investigations, to limit the Shin Bet's surveillance powers over citizens and residents, and to stop the use of spyware by the police and the Shin Bet. 

Is the Shin Bet Subject to any oversight to prevent the misuse of its powers?

The Prime Minister, or someone on the Prime Minister’s behalf, is responsible for approving the Shin Bet’s actions. Oversight is weak and based mainly on ongoing supervision by the Legal Advisor to the Government and their staff, but this supervision is done retrospectively and based on the Shin Bet's own reports. Additionally, there is parliamentary supervision, but it is also retrospective and has proven to be ineffective. There is currently no significant external and independent supervisory body that continuously monitors the Shin Bet and examines its adherence to the law and respect for individual rights. Courts are almost never involved in Shin Bet investigative decisions or in how and when it utilizes its unique tools. Since the Shin Bet is a covert counterintelligence organization, most of its actions remain secret, making public supervision of its actions almost impossible. It is rare for its activities to be brought before the Supreme Court for review. 

How is the head of the Shin Bet appointed? 

The head of the Shin Bet is appointed by the government on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, making it relatively easy for the Prime Minister to decide on the next head of the Shin Bet and bring it for government approval, where a majority is guaranteed. 

The appointment is examined by the Advisory Committee for Senior Civil Service Appointments, which is led by a retired Supreme Court judge and includes the Civil Service Commissioner and two public representatives. Its main role is to examine the appointee's integrity, including their political affiliation. This committee makes it difficult for prime ministers to appoint a corrupt person or someone with an obvious political affiliation and agenda, but in many cases the committee cannot prevent the appointment, even when it is clear the person was chosen based on political loyalty and closeness to the Prime Minister. 

It should be emphasized that the committee is only an advisory body and the government is not bound by its decision. Nonetheless, if the government appoints someone as Shin Bet head whom the committee recommended not to appoint, the Supreme Court may intervene and cancel the appointment in response to petitions filed. 

Does making the head of the Shin Bet a political appointment increase the risk to citizens' and residents' rights? 

Without a doubt. Appointing someone to lead the Shin Bet who was chosen based on political loyalty and who will do the Prime Minister's bidding dramatically increases the risk of misusing the organization's powers. This concern grows if other groups that bear responsibility for oversight, however limited, also become political appointees and instruments of the Prime Minister. 

What tasks might the Prime Minister demand the head of the Shin Bet undertake? 

The Shin Bet Law of 2002 is a general and vague law, and includes many clauses that can be interpreted broadly. Because the Shin Bet operates in a gray area, it can be deployed for purposes far removed from preventing harm to state security. For example, the Shin Bet is responsible for protecting against the exposure of state secrets. This could be interpreted into a directive from the Prime Minister to the Shin Bet to conduct surveillance on particular journalists who published embarrassing information against the government. Another example: the Shin Bet is responsible for protecting the Prime Minister and other figures, and this could lead to a directive from the Prime Minister to monitor protesters, under the pretext that they pose a risk. The term "state security" is also vague, and the Prime Minister might require the Shin Bet to deal with issues such as fighting crime in Arab society under the pretext that crime organizations might also deal in weapons or cooperate with terrorist organizations, thus bringing the Shin Bet into a completely civilian sphere. The Prime Minister might order the Shin Bet to investigate and spy on opposition parties or NGOs under the pretext of "preventing subversion," a vague term that can encompass many forms of opposition to the government. Alternatively, the Prime Minister could order the Shin Bet not to investigate an individual or group in order to help the Prime Minister politically. If the head of the Shin Bet is chosen based on political loyalty, they might carry out these questionable tasks. 

What additional Shin Bet tools can the Prime Minister exploit? 

As mentioned, the Shin Bet as a counterintelligence organization was given extensive powers to spy on and monitor the state's citizens and residents. If the Prime Minister wishes, they can influence the Shin Bet to spy on political rivals, government opponents, and gatekeepers preserving the system of checks and balances. Recently, it was even reported that the Shin Bet used its capabilities to locate protesters who fired flares in protest near the Prime Minister's house in Caesarea. 

If all the tools already at the Shin Bet’s disposal aren't enough, the government is promoting a draft law that seeks to significantly expand the tools available to the Shin Bet, including the powers to collect databases from private entities, use spyware, and search computers.