Knesset grants Likud MK Gotliv immunity for exposing Shin Bet agent’s identity

The Knesset voted Wednesday to grant Likud MK Tally Gotliv immunity from criminal prosecution for exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer, shielding her from an indictment over social media posts in which she identified the partner of anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler as a security agent while promoting baseless conspiracy theories about the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

The plenum voted 61-48 to grant immunity on the grounds that Gotliv’s actions were carried out in the course of, or for the purpose of, fulfilling her duties as a member of Knesset, and 62-48 because the indictment was filed in bad faith or in a discriminatory manner.

The Attorney General’s Office announced last month that it was indicting Gotliv over media posts from 2024 identifying the agent, while insinuating that he bore responsibility for October 7.

According to the indictment, despite warnings by the Shin Bet that her posts constituted potential security risks, Gotliv “consciously and intentionally” did not remove the posts and stood by their publication, continuing to share posts about Bressler’s partner and stating that she would keep doing so.

Gotliv has never disputed the underlying facts and repeatedly argued during House Committee hearings that her actions were justified.

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Her immunity will expire at the conclusion of the current Knesset’s term in the coming months.

The vote followed three combative Knesset House Committee hearings that culminated in an 11-3 recommendation to grant immunity, which opposition lawmakers denounced as amounting to little more than a rubber stamp for a decision that coalition members had already made.

Addressing the plenum ahead of the vote, Gotliv continued to claim the case against her was intended to “whitewash the senior leadership of the Shin Bet and blacken the government’s name” over October 7. Insisting that she was protected by parliamentary privilege, she declared that her actions “were done as part of my role, for the sake of my role and for the sake of the people.”

Coalition lawmakers hailed the decision, including Gotliv’s close ally Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who celebrated her triumph as “a victory for the entire national camp,” while Likud MK Boaz Bismuth said the vote marks an end to the judicial system’s “political persecution” of right-wing elected officials.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a photograph of himself with Gotliv from a High Court of Justice appearance, captioning it simply: “Lioness!” Neither he nor the premier attended the vote itself.

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein was the lone member of the coalition to vote against the measure.

“If the Arab Knesset members were to expose the names of Mossad agents and Shin Bet personnel, would we stay silent then too?” the former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said in a post on X.

‘A sanctuary city for criminals’

Opposition leaders slammed the Knesset for exonerating a lawmaker who deliberately exposed a Shin Bet officer to danger.

Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot condemned the decision, arguing that allowing elected officials to “endanger Israel’s security and use their parliamentary immunity as a refuge from the law is a slap in the face to the fighters and members of the security establishment.”

He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having “personally worked to place on the current Likud list people who have nothing whatsoever to do with statesmanship, liberalism, or patriotism.”

Democratic chair Yair Golan likewise denounced the vote as a “disgrace,” declaring that the Knesset has become “a sanctuary city for political cronies and criminals.”

“Once again, Netanyahu’s coalition has proven that it prefers political survival to the good of the country and Israel’s security,” he said.

“The coalition hasn’t voted today for Tali Gotliv; it has voted against the Shin Bet. Against its fighters… and our obligation to protect them,” said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

A civil suit continues

Immediately following the vote, it was announced that the Shin Bet agent whose identity was exposed by Gotliv filed a petition with the High Court of Justice over the vote.

Filed by the security agent’s attorney, the petition requests that the court overturn the Knesset’s decision.

“In its decision to grant immunity from prosecution to someone who revealed the name of an agent, the 25th Knesset is sending a message to all members of the secret services that they should expect their lives to be turned upside down for the sake of momentary political interest,” read an excerpt of the petition cited by Channel 12.

Separately, the Lod District Court ruled Tuesday that Gotliv does not enjoy automatic parliamentary immunity from a civil defamation lawsuit filed against her by Bressler for revealing her partner’s identity.

The court ruled, however, that Gotliv does have immunity from the other items detailed in the lawsuit, thus dismissing it, with the exception of the items related to her revealing the identity of the Shin Bet officer, which he said need further examination.

Gotliv has repeatedly alleged that US intelligence agencies had intercepted a conversation between Bressler’s partner and then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the run-up to October 7.

According to the conspiracy theory, then-Mossad head David Barnea had summoned Bressler for a meeting as a result of the intelligence, days before the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Both Netanyahu and the Mossad spy agency have repeatedly and forcibly denied the claims.

Since entering the Knesset in November 2022, Gotliv has established a reputation for making incendiary claims against protest groups and accusing the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet of “working for terrorists.”

She has also repeatedly disrupted Knesset and judicial proceedings, such as when she compared a security guard who forcibly ejected her from a court hearing to Jews who implemented Nazi instructions under duress during the Holocaust.