More than half of Israelis believe the government must obey the High Court’s decision to halt the dismissal of Ronen Bar from his duties as Shin Bet head, according to a survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI).
On Tuesday morning, the High Court heard petitions against the firing of Ronen Bar.
This has led Israelis across the political spectrum to respond in a variety of ways. Some responses argue that the court overstepped its authority and claim that the government is not required to follow the court’s decision, while others take the opposite view.
Among the Jewish public, 54% of people believe the government must obey the court’s ruling on the matter, while 36% disagree. Among Israel’s Arab population, 71% believe the government must comply, compared to only 8% that disagree.
In this survey, the Jewish population is broken down into Left, Center, and Right. The majority of Israelis, including those from the Left and Center, believe that the government must follow the court’s ruling. 96% of the Left and 73% of the Center believe the government should obey the High Court’s decision.
In contrast, on the Right, the majority believe that the government does not need to obey the court’s ruling, with only 32% agreeing and 56% disagreeing.
The breakdown of the respondents, based on a breakdown vote for the 2022 Knesset election, shows that none of Israel’s right-wing parties – such as the Likud and Religious Zionist parties – have pushed in favor of the High Court.
The survey
The survey was conducted between March 31 and April 6, 2025, interviewing 598 men and women in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic. All respondents were above the age of 18, according to the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the IDI.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed Bar of his intention to fire him on March 16, citing a “lack of trust,” while Bar said the reasons for firing him were baseless.
At the heart of the matter are questions of conflict of interest involving the prime minister, due process or a lack thereof, and a broader disagreement of what a functioning democracy looks like and where the power splits fall.
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.