The soldiers accused of carrying out the attack held a press conference on Sunday in front of the Supreme Court, wearing black balaclavas to avoid being identified.
The group said they could not receive a fair trial because of the leaked video and were victims of an unfair “court-martial.”
Concerns over political influence in the IDF
On Sunday, Netanyahu characterized the fallout from the leaked video as “perhaps the most severe propaganda attack against the State of Israel” in its history.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that anyone who invented “blood libels against Israeli soldiers was not worthy of putting on the IDF uniform.”
The incident in the southern Negev Desert has exposed, in the opinion of opponents of the current government, the progressive politicization of the IDF.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the images as anti-Israel propaganda.Credit: AP
Tomer-Yerushalmi seemed to be a model servant of the State. She was the second woman to ascend to the position; In 2021, she was named chief military defender, in fact the IDF’s top lawyer.
However, the 51-year-old mother of three is now under investigation over the leak.
It had earlier submitted an official statement to the High Court claiming that it could not locate the source of the leak.
If leaking the video was enough to end her stellar legal career in the IDF, allegedly lying about it to Israel’s highest court could be enough to land her in jail.
She is due to be questioned by police this week about her actions, and after significant concerns for her welfare when her car was found abandoned near a clifftop beach near Tel Aviv, authorities said she had been found “alive and well”.
Protesters gathered in Sde Teiman in Israel last year to show support for soldiers interrogated over alleged abuse of Palestinian detainees.Credit: AP
Tomer-Yerushalmi’s rapid fall from grace has shocked Israel, but it is why he felt the need to leak the video that is causing the public row.
Allegations of abuse at Sde Teiman by IDF Unit 100 reservists, including a captain and a major, were already in the public domain before Channel 12 broadcast the footage for the first time in August 2024.
The fact that the detainee was so seriously injured that he had to be admitted to a civil hospital was forced upon him.
Charging
When rumors not only of this incident but also of allegations of systematic abuse at Sde Teiman began to reach the international press, the Military Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation on orders from Tomer-Yerushalmi.
It was the investigation into IDF soldiers that first provoked reaction from senior figures in Israel’s government.
After all, accusations of abuse were the last thing the government needed, with Israel’s international reputation sinking due to the brutality of the Gaza campaign and war crimes accusations against the prime minister looming.
The country was also still in deep shock and, for many citizens, anger over the October 7 massacre, with extremely limited concern about the treatment of detained Palestinians.
The reaction against the investigation included violent scenes in which demonstrators, including politicians, broke into two military compounds to protest against the investigation.
There was also enormous political pressure, both public and, allegedly, private, placed on Tomer-Yerushalmi to drop the investigation, including accusing her of fabricating the allegations.
Her decision to leak the video evidence has been seen as essentially her bowing to this pressure: a desperate act by a lawyer who until now had played by the rules and was determined to prove that her team wasn’t making things up.
It is very possible that it will turn out to be disastrous for her personally.
Others worry that, more importantly, the fact that a high-ranking IDF officer could find himself under such political pressure in the first place indicates an erosion of respect for the military’s neutrality.
For Netanyahu’s critics, the so-called “MAG affair” shows that, after allegedly trying to politicize Israel’s judiciary, sparking months of protests before the war, he is now trying the same with the military.
Katz, seen as a Netanyahu yes man but also personally ambitious, is already accused of delaying approval of high-ranking military appointments – most of which traditionally fall under the purview of ministers – in an effort to ensure political loyalty among the high command.
At the same time, Justice Minister Yariv Levin is trying to warn Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara against any involvement in the consequences of the Tomer-Yerushalmi case.
This follows significant public unrest over the firing of Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, earlier this year after he launched an investigation into Qatari influence on Netanyahu’s staff.
Charging
The concern is that while Israel has always had a vocal policy, the neutrality of its professional military and security services, which have traditionally remained sacrosanct, is threatened.
A lawyer for one of Sde Teiman’s five military guards has now called for the prosecutions to be dropped, arguing that the proliferation of the now-famous video means his client cannot get a fair trial.
Whether that argument succeeds or not, Israel’s reputation as a country with the rule of law is once again in the dock.
