Netanyahu on leak case: ‘Shin Bet abusing suspects to punish me’

Israeli premier says he is “shaken” by the Shin Bet violating suspects’ “basic rights as citizens” in leak case.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Shin Bet security agency of engaging in a “witch hunt” and the Israeli military of hiding “critical” intelligence from him, in a fiery nine-minute-long video addressing the recent indictment filed against one of his aides.

Eli Feldstein, an officer in the military reserves who worked as as an advisor to Netanyahu, reportedly brought a Hamas document to the premier’s attention that had previously not been presented to the prime minister.

The document, written by a mid-level Hamas member, outlined the terror organization’s strategy of psychological warfare, including encouraging hostage protests in order to exacerbate divisions within Israeli society.

After presenting the document to Netanyahu, Feldstein allegedly leaked its contents to a German newspaper.

Several months later, he and a non-commissioned military officer, who has not been named publicly, were arrested by the Shin Bet.

For more than one month, Feldstein has been held in isolation, and has been denied access to an attorney. He was recently moved to suicide watch, after a noose was said to have been discovered in his cell.

Feldstein is being charged with leaking classified information in an attempt to harm state security. If convicted, he cold face a life sentence.

“This reality, in which young people are held like the worst terrorists, handcuffed for days, days in which they are prevented from accessing their lawyers, and violating their basic rights as citizens, shakes me,” Netanyahu said in the video statement, which was posted to his X account.

Defending Feldstein, he described his former aide as a “passionate Zionist and patriot,” adding that “there is no chance in the world that he would intentionally do anything to harm state security.”

Netanyahu questioned why the document regarding Hamas’ strategy was never presented to him.

“Was this document supposed to be on my desk? Why didn’t it reach me? This isn’t the first time critical information hasn’t been delivered to me,” he said.

The premier noted that there had been a number of high-profile leaks since the onset of the October 7th war, including those that had revealed sensitive details regarding Israel’s military capabilities, but nobody was arrested or even questioned in those cases.

“It doesn’t take a genius to understand why there was no investigation into these leaks,” Netanyahu said.

“The public isn’t foolish. And now, we have a single investigation into one leak regarding a document that exposes Hamas’s strategy to divide Israeli society and pressure me and the government to surrender to Hamas’s will,” he added.

“The goal [of the indictment] is clear: to harm me and to harm you – the citizens of Israel who support me.”