A new audio recording surfaced Monday involving A., the head of the Jewish Department in the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), in which he is heard making disparaging comments about a judge. This latest revelation follows a prior controversy involving inappropriate remarks about detainees.
The segment, set to be released in full later by Kan News, captures part of a conversation between A. and Cmdr. Avishai Moalem, who heads the Judea and Samaria Police Central Unit. In addition to objecting to the court’s demand to access Shin Bet materials, A. made blunt and dismissive remarks about the judge overseeing the case.
During the exchange, Moalem mentions a judge seeking access to raw Shin Bet files, saying: “He saw materials – he says he wants to see the Shin Bet’s paraphrase, the Shin Bet’s raw materials.” A. responds sharply: “He won’t see it, he could go jump in a lake, who does he think he is?”
This comes just a week after another recording emerged in which A. is heard belittling detainees and expressing a willingness to keep them imprisoned without evidence.
Following the release of that initial recording, A. announced that he would step aside from his role while an internal inquiry is conducted into the matter.
In a message sent to his team, A. expressed regret over the language he used. “I am sorry from the depths of my heart for the style of the things that were said, which do not characterize how I deal with the many other bodies with whom we collaborate.”
He continued: “I totally discredit the attempt to create an appearance of work that violates the law or the values of restraint of power and statesmanship. I misspoke in a way that does not match the agency’s values and my own, and therefore, to allow for a thorough examination and through my dedication to leading by example, I suspend myself from my position as the head of the department until the completion of the thorough examination of the issue.”
In the earlier recording, A. referred to suspects from Judea and Samaria as “Shmucks,” and described holding them for a few days without concrete evidence. Speaking with Moalem, the two discussed strategies for handling Jewish terror suspects, during which A. said: “Put them in detention cells, with mice.”
He also remarked, “We always want to arrest them for interrogation, as much as possible. See how ISA conducts investigations with them. We arrest those shmucks even without evidence for a few days.”
{Matzav.com Israel}