The Knesset House Committee voted 11-3 on Monday to grant Likud MK Tally Gotliv immunity from criminal prosecution for repeatedly exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer, capping three tumultuous hearings that opposition lawmakers argued amounted to little more than a rubber stamp for a decision that coalition members had already made.

The decision, supported unanimously by coalition members on the committee, will now be brought before the Knesset plenum for final approval. Any immunity granted, however, would expire at the conclusion of the current Knesset’s term in the coming weeks.

The Attorney General’s Office announced last month that it was indicting Gotliv over social media posts from 2024 that identified the partner of an antigovernment protest leader as a Shin Bet agent, while promoting baseless conspiracy theories linking him to Hamas and insinuating that he bore responsibility for the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

Gotliv does not dispute the charges and repeatedly maintained throughout the hearings that her actions were justified.

“I deliberately exposed Shikma Bressler’s partner. It was crystal clear to me that there had been subversion and rebellion here that the Shin Bet did not investigate,” she said during Monday’s hearing.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who attended the previous two hearings but did not appear at Monday’s session, has said that Gotliv violated the law by exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer and that parliamentary immunity does not shield her.

The first hearing was held last week, even as most Knesset activity was suspended due to Iranian missile attacks that repeatedly sent Israelis to shelters, with a second hearing taking place several days later.

"פיליבסטר תעשו במליאה, לא פה": בתום דיון והצבעה סוערת, ועדת הכנסת הכריעה בעד מתן החסינות לח"כ גוטליב. כעת, הבקשה תעבור להכרעה סופית ולאישור מליאת הכנסת ביום........

© The Times of Israel