The head of the police’s investigations division blocked a probe into Rabbi Yosef Zini, the father of likely incoming Shin Bet chief David Zini, on suspicion of making threats against a Hadash-Ta’al lawmaker, authorities say. In recordings aired earlier this month by Channel 13 news, the rabbi was taped joking he would have killed MK Ahmad Tibi if elected to the Knesset and expressing his hope for the High Court to “explode.”
“What luck that I wasn’t elected to the Knesset, if I were elected to the Knesset I’d die in jail. If I heard MK Ahmad Tibi say, “I am the sovereign” and if I had a gun, I would kill the sovereign,” he is heard saying, then laughing in the recording.
MK Ahmad Tibi attends Hadash–Ta’al faction meeting, at the Knesset on July 21, 2025 (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Tibi tells The Times of Israel that his office informed the Knesset security officer of Zini’s statements, as is protocol in instances of incitement to murder or violence, and the officer then passed it to the police. Police say that after a complaint was filed against Zini, 80, Deputy Commissioner Boaz Blatt instructed investigators to review the evidence against him and reached the decision not to launch a probe.
On Tuesday, September 30, the far-right government unanimously approved the appointment of Maj. Gen. David Zini as head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet despite opposition objections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Zini will assume his position on Oct. 5. Zini will succeed Ronen Bar, who left his post in mid-June after sharp disputes with Netanyahu over the failure to repel the Hamas deadly attack on Israeli localities and military bases on Oct. 7, 2023. While Bar acknowledged responsibility for that failure, Netanyahu refused to do so and insisted on continuing the genocide in Gaza, a move that the opposition and families of hostages in Gaza viewed as an attempt by the prime minister to prolong the war for his political survival.
Despite the government’s approval, the appointment faces legal petitions, including from public interest groups, alleging it is “unreasonable” due to Zini’s proximity to Netanyahu and potential conflicts of interest. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel files a petition to the High Court of Justice asking for the appointment of David Zini as head of the Shin Bet to be annulled based on “critical ethical concerns” relating to Netanyahu, who selected Zini as a candidate and Zini himself.
The petition asserts that the advisory committee, headed by former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, which approved Zini’s candidacy did not properly consider what the organization asserts is Netanyahu’s conflict of interest in selecting a Shin Bet candidate against the backdrop of the ongoing “Bild newspaper” and “Qatargate” investigations into Netanyahu’s aides, in which the Shin Bet has been one of the investigating bodies.
The petition also notes that the advisory committee itself determined that Netanyahu had made requests from several former Shin Bet chiefs which were “not appropriate in a democratic regime.”
Last Friday, dozens of anti-government protesters demonstrated in occupied East Jerusalem outside the ultraconservative Har Hamor Yeshiva in opposition to the appointment of Zini as Shin Bet chief, who studied at the yeshiva.
Protesters gathering outside the yeshiva call Zini an “illegitimate candidate” and are imploring the High Court of Justice to nullify his candidacy, arguing his views should preclude him from heading the Shin Bet. Rabbi Zvi Tau, who heads the Har Hamor Yeshiva that Zini attended, is also the spiritual leader of the far-right, racist and anti-LGBTQ Noam party. Far-right Zini himself is a self-styled “messianic” and has reportedly derided the judicial system as a “dictatorship” that rules over the State of Israel.
