Source calls change 'dramatic'; Shin Bet declines to comment

Shin Bet quietly reverses ban on Urich accessing Prime Minister’s Office – report

Security agency said to grant Netanyahu aide, a key suspect in several police probes, renewed access after talks with senior PMO official

The Shin Bet security agency has quietly reversed its position and allowed Jonatan Urich, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key suspect in several police investigations, to access the Prime Minister’s Office, according to a Monday report.

The shift, described to Haaretz by a source familiar with the matter as “dramatic,” emerged after months of internal discussions between the PMO’s security chief, Alon Haliva, and senior Shin Bet officials.

In late 2025, the Shin Bet issued a directive barring Urich and fellow Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein from entering PMO premises, stemming from their alleged involvement in the Bild leaked documents scandal and the Qatargate affair. The ban was separate from court-imposed restrictions on contacting or working with Netanyahu, which were lifted in March after over a year.

Following Haliva’s conversations with the Shin Bet, the agency quietly issued an updated opinion in February allowing both advisers to enter the building, though not areas designated as classified, containing sensitive material or requiring special security clearance, the report said.

The Shin Bet has not explained the reason for the policy change, according to the report.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel has petitioned the High Court of Justice to bar anyone suspected of involvement in the Qatargate scandal from entering and working at the PMO, though the state argued that it was unnecessary because the Shin Bet had already restricted their access.

Now that the Shin Bet’s position has changed and Urich is allowed to enter the office, the state is still arguing that the High Court should reject the petition, claiming no substantive change and pointing out that the two embattled aides did not have security clearance to access classified areas in the first place.

But Haaretz noted, citing several sources, that enforcement on access to restricted areas within the PMO is slack, and several aides without clearance regularly enter sensitive areas, including the so-called “aquarium,” the glass-fronted inner sanctum reserved for the premier and senior officials.

The lax enforcement even prompted a Shin Bet review of office access, the report added, which the Movement for Quality Government has called a “revolving door.”

That state has acknowledged that the Bild leak and Qatargate affairs highlight the risks of allowing individuals under investigation near classified material, the report said, though it has resisted court restrictions on officials in the premier’s office and inner circle.

The state has also pointed to the fact that Urich is not an official government employee, instead being paid by Netanyahu’s Likud party, and is therefore not subject to all security requirements, a loophole that some officials told Haaretz is in need of fixing.

Urich, along with Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, is accused of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, despite the Gulf state’s backing for the terror group, all while working in the PMO.

Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and money laundering.

In addition, he is a suspect in the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in the summer of 2024, allegedly to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with Hamas. That affair also involves Feldstein and Einhorn.

Urich denies all allegations.

According to the report, the PMO said that it continues to comply with Shin Bet directives regarding Urich’s access to the office.

The Shin Bet declined to comment on the Haaretz report.

The reported change in the agency’s position comes weeks after Shin Bet chief David Zini, a recent Netanyahu appointee, reportedly issued a letter to court authorities that the premier cannot testify in his criminal trial over concerns for his safety, a letter that former agency chief Ronen Bar said he refused to write a year earlier. The premier’s testimony has since been postponed or cancelled early several times in recent weeks, but not because of reasons relating to his security.