According to Israeli media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar launched an investigation into his senior aides' financial ties with Qatar to prevent Bar's dismissal. However, Netanyahu's claim lacked evidence and contradicted the known timeline, as the dismissal process began after the investigation was already underway.

Netanyahu's cabinet voted to fire Bar on Thursday and was planning to advance the process to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday.

In a video message, Netanyahu presented "shocking" documents to support his claim, but they did not align with the facts or timeline.

“The facts prove unequivocally that the dismissal was not intended to prevent the investigation — the investigation was intended to prevent the dismissal,” Netanyahu said, with no evidence. “So tell me, who here is acting with ulterior motives?”

What did the video include? 

נתניהו בסרטון: רונן בר לא יישאר ראש השב"כ, לא תהיה מלחמת אחים, וישראל תישאר מדינה דמוקרטית@gilicohen10 pic.twitter.com/9MxauZvag6

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 22, 2025

In the video, Netanyahu rejected legal petitions to block Bar's dismissal, asserting that Bar “will not remain head of the Shin Bet” and that “Israel will remain a democratic state with no civil war.”

However, he did not specify how he would react if the High Court decided to overturn Bar’s removal.

“We are a nation of laws, and the law in the State of Israel, simply put, means that the government is entitled to fire the Shin Bet chief before the end of his term,” Netanyahu stated, dismissing claims that the firing of the Shin Bet head was done to prevent the investigation into the issue of Qatar.

Netanyahu claimed that his distrust of Bar began on October 7, 2023, when he blamed the Shin Bet chief for not alerting him to early signals from Gaza. He further stated that as the war continued, his distrust grew.

According to the report, an anonymous Israeli official believed to be Netanyahu, later accused Bar of knowing about the Hamas operation but failing to act.

In his Saturday video, Netanyahu suggested that Bar, anticipating his dismissal, delayed submitting investigations into the October 7 operation and colluded with Baharav-Miara to launch the Qatar probe in a bid to prevent his ouster.

“I thought that the appropriate time to end the Shin Bet head’s tenure would be after he presented me with the Shin Bet’s probes into the failures of October 7. So it was with the IDF chief of staff. I instructed the Shin Bet head to present me with his probes by February 15,” Netanyahu said.

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“On February 15, the date by which he should have presented the probes, Ronen Bar sent me a letter,” he said, holding up the letter in question. “[Bar wrote], ‘I wish to update you that I am unable to present the probe of the Shin Bet on the date you requested.’ He ends the letter by saying, ‘In light of this, I ask to hand in the main findings no later than February 27.'”

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Contradicting timeline 

Netanyahu continued in the video: “But on February 27, he didn’t present me with the investigation, instead asking for several more days. Again, I agreed to his request. But look what happened: That very same day, on February 27, in the evening hours, in a rare coincidence one couldn’t invent, the attorney general announced the opening of a probe into Qatar!”

“The facts prove unequivocally that the dismissal was not intended to prevent the investigation — the investigation was intended to prevent the dismissal,” Netanyahu declared, as cited in the report. 

As mentioned in the report, the “Qatargate” probe actually began before February 27, the date Netanyahu highlighted. While Baharav-Miara announced the criminal investigation on that day, the Shin Bet had already been investigating the matter for at least 12 days, gathering evidence on alleged ties between Netanyahu's office and Qatar.

The first query about the issue came on February 9, well before Netanyahu's letters were sent. Channel 12 revealed the allegations on February 10, and by February 15, the Shin Bet confirmed the probe.

Additionally, Channel 12's pointed out that Netanyahu’s attempt to link the Qatar investigation to Bar’s dismissal backfired, noting that the probe was already underway when Netanyahu took action.

The 'Qatargate' probe

The Kan public broadcaster reported Saturday that the police "Qatargate" probe is investigating the transfer of funds between multiple entities since May 2022, potentially earlier.

A key challenge is that some individuals of interest, including Israel Einhorn, a former Netanyahu aide who worked for Qatar, reside outside the occupied territory. 

As mentioned in the report, on Friday, it was revealed that Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, a former Netanyahu spokesman, were the two suspects briefly detained for questioning on Wednesday in the ongoing police-Shin Bet "Qatargate" investigation.

They face charges of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering, and bribery. A court-issued gag order, effective until April 10, has restricted further details from being published.

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According to the report, the investigation into "Qatargate" was sparked by revelations that Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman for Netanyahu, worked for Qatar through an international firm contracted to provide pro-Qatar content to Israeli journalists during his tenure in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Furthermore, Kan TV released on Wednesday recordings of businessman Gil Birger claiming he funneled funds from a Qatari lobbyist to Feldstein.

Prosecutors have accused Feldstein of leaking a document to sway public opinion, which had turned against Netanyahu following the death of six Israeli captives in August.

Moreover, a Channel 13 report earlier this month claimed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were funneled from Qatar to Netanyahu aides, including through intermediaries such as one owned by Urich, who denied working for Qatar. Investigators were reportedly shocked by the volume of money transferred.