Meet David Zini, Israel's controversial next Shin Bet chief
The Grunis Committee cleared his nomination despite controversies over Zini's past statements, national-religious background, and closeness to the prime minister.
The committee overseeing senior civil service nominations on Thursday cleared David Zini, a career military officer, to become Israel's next Shin Bet director. The cabinet is expected to approve his appointment next week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
Although cleared by the Grunis Committee, Zini's nomination to lead Israel's domestic intelligence agency generated objections by former Shin Bet directors and other former senior officials with the agency. Zini would become only the second person from outside the agency to lead it, the only other such director being Ami Ayalon, a former marine commander who headed it from 1996 to 2000.
A long military career
Zini, 51, grew up in Ashdod, in central Israel. The eldest of ten children, his father served as the local rabbi. Zini himself studied in several national-religious yeshivas, including on the occupied West Bank in the far-right Shavei Hebron, in the heart of Hebron's Old City, before enlisting in the military, where he served from 1992 until June 2025, attaining the rank of major general.
