In a recording leaked Monday, a suspended officer in Israel’s Shin Bet security agency is heard dismissing a judge’s request to explain the arrest of a Jewish person.

The recording is the latest in a series of leaks that began appearing on April 5 and which have hurt the reputation of the agency’s Jewish Department.

The leaks coincide with attempts by the government to fire Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, a firing the High Court of Justice blocked last week, pending further review. The affair is part of a broader and polarizing power struggle between elected politicians and unelected officials, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called “the deep state.”

The latest recording, according to Kan News, is of A., who suspended himself from heading the Jewish Department last week due to an earlier leak. The new recording is a conversation between a police officer and A. about a judge’s request to review Shin Bet material in connection with the detainment of a person of interest to the Jewish Department, Kan reported.

The judge “saw the material and he tells me: ‘I want to see the Shin Bet version, the raw Shin Bet material’,” the police officer, Avishai Muallem, tells A., according to the report. A. reportedly replied: “He’s not going to see it. He can piss up a rope. Who does he think he is?”

The dismissiveness toward the judiciary is embarrassing for Shin Bet at a time when Bar is in office due to a court injunction that suspended indefinitely the Cabinet’s vote on April 8 to fire him due to trust issues.

Image - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Ronen Bar, April 18, 2024. Photo by Koby Gideon/GPO