Beyond the IDF’s Military Advocate General (MAG) Corps, the corruption almost certainly involves Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and her cohorts in Israel’s Justice Ministry. It may even reach so far up as a sitting justice on the Israeli Supreme Court. The only question, and indeed hope, is that this administration employs this opportunity to conduct a thorough “house cleaning” in the most extensive manner possible.
To recap in brief: Since the atrocities of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military facility Sde Teiman in the Negev has served as a detention center for Palestinian terrorists captured in the war. In response to alleged abuse of detainees there, including supposed instances of sexual violence, on July 29, 2024, military prosecutors ordered a full-scale raid involving a multitude of masked military police who descended upon the base and apprehended a group of reservists suspected of having committed the offenses.
Widespread public outrage and protest immediately erupted at the sight of normative citizens willing to put their lives at danger by guarding bloodthirsty terrorist monsters being suddenly treated as depraved criminals to be rounded up and dragged off to jail for interrogation.
But then, suddenly, Israel’s Channel 12 had a scoop; a surveillance video “miraculously” surfaced purporting to show how the soldiers had violated a particular detainee. On closer scrutiny, however, it became apparent that the footage had been tampered with, spliced and rearranged to portray a grossly fictitious blood-libel against IDF soldiers.
Nevertheless, the damage was already done as minions of anti-Israel organizations, influencers and government officials across the globe, including, to some degree, the U.S. State Department, condemned the IDF and accused Israel of systematic barbarity.
By even the most conservative estimates, the doctored video has received tens of millions of views to date and has caused untold damage to Israel’s international image and efforts to justify its war in Gaza.
In petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court, the accused soldiers demanded a thorough and conclusive investigation into how the edited tape was leaked and who manufactured it. Months passed, but time after time, the MAG office delayed revealing any results of its review of the matter.
Ultimately, Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, declaring that the IDF’s legal division was unable to determine how exactly the surveillance video was leaked or by whom, since “hundreds” of people had come into possession of the footage. “Not even a single initial indication was found pointing to the source of the information transfer,” the respondents claimed.
When the petitioners and their attorneys tried to demonstrate to the court how this pronouncement was an outright lie, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez dismissively retorted: “Listen carefully, the Military Advocate General is a gatekeeper, and gatekeepers never lie. I was also in the military prosecutor’s office, and military prosecutors don’t lie.”
Such an absurdly outlandish disposition by a Supreme Court justice can only lead us to ponder to what extent Barak-Erez may have been involved in one of the most severe, not to mention harmful, cover-ups Israel has ever known.
There should be no doubt that without the recent appointment of Maj. Gen. (res.) David Zini as the new Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief, the truth would never have been exposed, and the criminal injustice would have remained concealed virtually forever. Indeed, it was only by virtue of an astonishing combination of events that the devious machinations of Israel’s indefeasible “deep state” proved lacking.
First, a shadowy junta within the Shin Bet failed to disqualify Zini’s nomination, despite their ruthless efforts to spy on him and illegally wiretap confidential meetings he held with his subordinates. (Those who claimed the organization opposed Zini for fear that an outsider would expose its shadowy behaviork feel vindicated now, ed.) Next, Tomer-Yerushalmi’s official spokesperson applied for a promotion and, in accordance with regulated procedure, underwent a standard polygraph test.
By pure chance, it was then discovered that not only was the officer involved in the leak, but that her direct superior, Tomer-Yerushalmi, had orchestrated the whole affair. As the Shin Bet administered the examination, these shocking revelations were immediately presented to Zini and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who then notified the country’s attorney general.
But the deep state doesn’t give up so easily, and in a gravely suspicious, patently unjustifiable move, the attorney general ordered Zamir to keep the matter strictly under wraps and forbade him from reporting on the investigation to the political echelon, i.e., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.
In effect, Baharav-Miara was determined to establish herself as the sole official leading the investigation with direct command authority over the chief of general staff. When the story finally did break, the attorney general’s office was quick to announce that Tomer-Yerushalmi was not suspected of any wrongdoing.
It is by no means an unrelated digression to point out that Baharav-Miara and Tomer-Yerushalmi maintain a close personal relationship that they have found to be mutually beneficial. A particularly heinous demonstration of this unholy alliance came to light when Baharav-Miara’s son, an IDF officer, was accused and eventually confessed, after being presented with video footage from a security camera, to stealing an expensive ceramic protective vest from a reserve soldier.
Despite the glaring severity of the crime, the entire episode was quietly closed as the military prosecutors refused to bring charges, and no criminal proceedings were pursued.
This time, however, things would be different. There’s a new head of the Shin Bet, an IDF chief of general staff dedicated to re-establishing the public’s trust in the MAG Corps, and a cadre of government ministers unflinching in their fortitude to purge the entrenched elite from the ranks of the establishment. The sheer magnitude of the culprits’ calumny serves to prevent the matter from disappearing, and as each day goes by, the disgrace grows in its enormity.
As a result, Tomer-Yerushalmi had no choice, and was given no choice but to resign. In her letter of resignation, she openly admitted to having authorized the release of the classified video under the contrived pretense that she was attempting to “fend off false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.” She also said, “I take full responsibility for all of the evidence that was sent out to the media by this unit.”
Authorizing the release of classified security camera footage is one thing, but lying to the Supreme Court is quite another. It can’t be denied that this military advocate general willingly and purposely deceived the Supreme Court, as she pretended to oversee a bogus investigation which, in actuality, was aimed solely at obfuscating the truth and averting any blame from herself.
But did she lie to her close friend Baharav-Miara? Or did the two of them share the belief that in this instance, the Supreme Court justices would unquestionably accept Tomer-Yerushalmi’s testimony as the unblighted truth since “gatekeepers never lie.”
Indeed, it was none other than the attorney general’s office that prepared, affirmed and submitted the spurious affidavit; therefore, should they not be held equally responsible?
As for Barak-Erez, now that her foolhardy faith in the pristine morality of “military prosecutors” has been utterly shattered and discredited, will she take the honorable step and announce her resignation? To be sure, only with the unremitting determination of this government and its fiercely ardent ministers will Israel’s democracy be freed from the stranglehold of the ruling, unelected oligarchy.
Adv. A. Amos Fried, a native of Chicago, is a licensed member of the Israel and New York State Bar Associations and has practiced law in Jerusalem for over 32 years. He specializes in civil litigation, criminal representation and commercial law. He can be reached at aafried@aafriedlaw.com.
Brilliant review of the scandal
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