How is it decided who will receive state security?

Who determines who will be secured?

The responsibility for the security of VIPs was placed on the Shin Bet by a government decision in 1975, and was later anchored in the General Security Service Law of 2002, according to which one of the service's roles is the security of people, information, and places determined by the government. Alongside the Shin Bet, the 'Magen' unit operates within the Prime Minister's Office, responsible for the security of ministers and senior officials in Israel and abroad.

The body authorized to make decisions on the matter is the Ministerial Committee for General Security Service Affairs. According to the law, the government appoints this committee, which acts on its behalf in matters it has determined, and it includes the Prime Minister as chairman, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of National Security, and one additional member.

In January 2023, the current government appointed the Ministerial Committee for Shin Bet Affairs, to which, in addition to the four permanent members, Minister of Education Yoav Kisch was added. One of the committee's powers is the security of VIPs, and therefore it is the body authorized to determine who will be secured by the Shin Bet through the State Unit for the Security of VIPs and Delegations, Unit 730.

The Advisory Committee

Alongside the Ministerial Committee, an advisory committee on security matters operates, which recommends the identity of the secured parties. Here, the current government decided on a renewal: instead of appointing members of the advisory committee for a three-year term as it was until then, the government decided in April 2023 that the term of the committee members at that time would end within 120 days of the formation of a new government.

The decision also determined that the advisory committee would include three public figures: a senior professional or managerial figure, a senior security figure, and a retired judge or someone who meets similar criteria. The chairman of the committee will be the senior security figure or the professional figure with significant experience in the field of security.

The discussions of the Ministerial Committee are classified: according to the Basic Law: The Government, the time of its convening, its agenda, its decisions, and the participants in its meetings are secret. Therefore, there are no official public documents about its decisions, and one can rely mainly on reports in the media.

What decisions were made in the past?

Previous reports indicate that the committee has already used its authority to determine who will be secured by the Shin Bet. Thus, in March 2020, it was reported that the Shin Bet recommended transferring the security of Benny Gantz to the Unit for the Security of VIPs, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the recommendation as chairman of the Ministerial Committee, subject to the approval of its members.

In July 2021, then under the Bennett-Lapid government, it was reported that the committee decided to accept the Shin Bet's recommendation to shorten the duration of the full security package for the family members of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to only half a year after the end of his term, instead of a year. 5 months later, it was reported that the Ministerial Committee for Shin Bet Affairs rejected Netanyahu's request to extend the security of his wife Sara and his sons Yair and Avner, "in accordance with the expert opinion of all security agencies presented at the discussion."

However, just about a month ago, a decision in the opposite direction was made in the Ministerial Committee for General Security Service Affairs - when it approved security for Sara Netanyahu, the Prime Minister's wife, until the end of the Prime Minister's life, and for their children Yair and Avner for a period of five years.