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A day after bombshell recordings appeared to show a senior Shin Bet official urging a police commander to bypass protocol and arrest Jewish settlers in the West Bank without warrants or evidence, additional leaked audio aired Sunday, shedding light on a tense and dysfunctional relationship between the two officials charged with combating Jewish extremist violence.
The recordings reveal internal disputes over enforcement tactics, operational strategy and alleged political interference.
The conversations, broadcast by Israeli media, feature Commander Avishai Muallem, who heads the police’s central investigative unit in the West Bank, and the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division. Though both were responsible for addressing Jewish extremism, the tapes point to a breakdown in cooperation and allegations of political bias.
Muallem is currently under police investigation over suspicions he deliberately avoided acting against settlers involved in violent attacks against Palestinians, allegedly at the direction of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
In one of the recordings, Muallem informs the Shin Bet official that one of five detainees had been released because “the High Court didn’t approve the arrest of that guy from Yitzhar.” The Shin Bet official responds with surprise, saying, "How did I not know about it?" Muallem responded, “Now you know.” The official replies, “I’ll handle it. In any case, we need to get more [arrests]. There’s a gathering of all those scumbags at Tapuach Junction. Are you going to break it up?”
Muallem responds that only regular police patrols will be present to photograph the participants, adding, “In the end, you know—there’s nothing we can do.” The Shin Bet official pushes back: “We can’t allow them to gather. We must prevent it. If they do gather, Yasam (riot police) should go in, document them and maybe they’ll be dumb enough to provoke police—then we arrest them for interfering with officers.”
In another recording, Muallem informs the official that a suspect has been arrested. “Well done,” the official replies. Muallem then boasts, “Call your friends and tell them, ‘You bastards, Avishai isn’t working? Avishai is working smart. I don’t wander around settlements for nothing—I'm looking for a bingo.’” The Shin Bet official responds, “Good arrest, good timing… son of a bitch.”
Additional recordings aired Sunday night by Channel 12 reveal that the two also discussed plans to arrest Rabbi Yossi Elitzur, the head of the yeshiva in the settlement of Yitzhar known for his extremist views.
Another recording features Muallem—currently at the center of a police bribery investigation and suspected of deliberately avoiding action against Jewish extremist violence—arguing with the senior Shin Bet official over arrest procedures.
“There’s no offense here, brother. Without an offense, you can’t issue an arrest warrant,” Muallem is heard saying. “I’m going to him at 4:30 in the morning. I’m not planning to arrest him inside the yeshiva. I’m going to his house, alright? He says, ‘I don’t want to open the door,’ what do you do?”
The Shin Bet official replies: “If he doesn’t want to open, issue an arrest warrant.” Muallem counters, “So why not come with the warrant in hand to begin with?” The official responds, “Because I don’t like that. You don’t do that with anyone else.”
The conversation escalates when the Shin Bet official says, “Why do I care if it’s an offense or not? Let’s say it’s not—though in my view, it is.” Muallem fires back: “What do you mean ‘why do I care’? We’re not amateurs.” He adds, “There’s no offense here. We consulted with legal advisers—ours and the national police's.” The official dismisses the legal opinion, saying, “I know this game, but we don’t go to legal advisors for every suspect, right?”
Eventually, the two agree that the suspect, a rabbi, will be arrested outside his home. “We’re here with an open command post. If there’s an indication—say he decides to drive to Tapuah—I’ll grab him on the way,” Muallem says. The Shin Bet official replies, “But only after you’ve gone to court.” Muallem pushes back: “No, I don’t have to.” The official responds, “Got it.” Muallem continues, “If he’s inside his house and doesn’t open the door, I have no authority to enter. But if he’s in a car and I stop him at a checkpoint, I can pull him out—end of story.” The Shin Bet official replies, “Understood. Fine.”
In another tense exchange that reveals the depth of the rift, Muallem lashes out at the Shin Bet representative: “Listen, all these leadership games don’t work on me. Tell Mr. [name redacted] that. You know why? Because I talk to you, and then he calls the district commander.” The Shin Bet official retorts, “What do you mean talk to me? You haven’t answered me for three days, Avishai. You’ve been at the command post for three days? What, are you on a trip?”
“We’re not on a trip, not like you,” Muallem shoots back. “But listen—he sits there, calls the district commander and says, ‘They refused to go up to Itamar, to that farm.’ How can he say that when we were just there yesterday?”
The Shin Bet official responds, “First, you didn’t inform us you were going up.” Muallem retorts, “What do you mean we didn’t inform you? We opened a desk with you.” The Shin Bet official warns, “Listen, Avishai, if you keep ignoring us, it won’t be the district commander who deals with it—it’ll be someone higher.”
At that point, Muallem ends the call: “I don’t want to work with you. How’s that? Go to the police commissioner, the district commander, Shin Bet, the prime minister—I’m not working with you. Bye. Goodbye.”
On Saturday, public broadcaster Kan revealed recordings in which the Shin Bet official is heard calling West Bank settlers “jerks” and admitting they are sometimes held “even without evidence.” The official also suggested placing detainees “in cells with rats.”
The two discussed controversial arrest tactics, with the Shin Bet official urging Muallem to detain suspects—even without cause—suggesting they might carry flammable materials. When Muallem warned about potential backlash, the official replied: “We’ve been down this road before. So why aren’t there any arrests?”
He also criticized the military’s handling of settler violence, claiming, “The army doesn’t know anything. It’s not an army, it’s a joke. It’s militias. It’s the settlers themselves.”
The remarks drew swift condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which labeled them a “real threat to democracy” and accused the Shin Bet of acting like a rogue agency. “There will not be a shadow government in Israel,” the statement read. In response to the outcry, the official suspended himself from duty.
The revelations come amid a growing rift between Netanyahu and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, who is facing potential dismissal. The dispute is expected to reach the High Court of Justice in the coming days.
During the recorded conversation, the official referenced Bar’s office, saying it was handling the situation “together with the defense minister.”
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Following the broadcast, Netanyahu’s office issued a second statement calling for an investigation into the Jewish Division, insisting that “citizens cannot be arrested without evidence and placed in illegal, inhumane conditions.” Netanyahu also asserted that Bar should not oversee the probe due to his alleged involvement and proposed that a future successor—pending Bar’s removal—lead the inquiry. The government has already voted to dismiss Bar, though the move is currently frozen under a High Court injunction.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara responded Sunday with a formal letter to Netanyahu, affirming that Bar would retain authority over the investigation. “The court issued an order suspending the government’s decision to end the Shin Bet chief’s term,” she wrote. “Your statement seeks to nullify the judicial ruling.”
Netanyahu later claimed that Muallem had refused to carry out what he called “false arrests” of Israeli citizens at the direction of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division. He said Muallem “upheld the law” but was later arrested on corruption charges approved by Baharav-Miara. Netanyahu accused Bar and Baharav-Miara of sharing a longstanding personal connection and conspiring to frame Muallem in an effort to prevent Bar’s dismissal.