Police: Shin Bet keeping us in the dark about East Jerusalem disturbances

There has been some improvement, with police officials saying the Shin Bet passed along partial intelligence after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Yitzhak

Aharonovich stepped in. Senior police officials said this week the security service understands the importance of working together to deal with Palestinian violence in the area.
 

But behind the scenes, police officials said they still lack sufficient intelligence to act effectively to stop disturbances, arguing that they could use a better “intelligence picture” of the situation.
 

The police say the Shin Bet knew that Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick was being targeted for assassination but did not inform the police before a gunman attempted to kill him late last month. The Shin Bet also failed to advise the police of threats made on the lives of other controversial Israeli figures, police officials said.
 

The Shin Bet is responsible for gathering intelligence about potential disturbances in East Jerusalem, but it is the police who end up confronting any rioters or stone throwers. Police officials said the Shin Bet withholds such information because it is focused primarily on preventing the next terror attack.
 

The police initially thought that clashes such as those that took place in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shoafat on Friday, in which dozens of Palestinians threw rocks at police and burned tires and garbage cans, were isolated protests that would blow over quickly. They later prepared better but found they had insufficient intelligence to act effectively, police officials said.
 

The police are generally wary of publicly criticizing the Shin Bet, and last week the police spokesman denied that police were dissatisfied with the information they were getting from the domestic security service. However, the police pressed Netanyahu to urge the Shin Bet to cooperate more fully with the police.