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Coalition members welcomed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s decision Wednesday to launch a criminal probe into leaked footage from the Sde Teiman detention facility that purported to show soldiers severely abusing a Gazan inmate last year, saying the video was leaked to defame the troops.
According to the IDF, investigators are probing the possible involvement of individuals from the office of Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi in distributing the video aired by Channel 12 in August 2024. Tomer-Yerushalmi, who is not herself a suspect, is on indefinite leave due to the investigation, which Baharav-Miara said was launched following new evidence.
Right-wing lawmakers and ministers, three of whom joined a mob that stormed Sde Teiman after the IDF soldiers suspected of abuse were detained, had long described the video as slander against IDF troops and called for the MAG’s office to be investigated for the leak.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, of the ruling Likud party, said Wednesday that he “welcomes and supports” the decision to launch the criminal probe. “This is a serious affair that created a blood libel against IDF soldiers in Israel and around the world, and it must be thoroughly examined and investigated,” he said.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has accused military jurists of endangering combat soldiers with legal constraints, said on X that the probe, and Tomer-Yerushalmi’s leave, were “a dramatic development in the defense of democracy against criminal conduct disguised as legal action.”
“All those involved in the affair must be held accountable, including the attorney general herself, who initially tried to thwart the investigation with a false statement to the High Court of Justice,” he added.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has led the government’s bid to weaken the judiciary, said the probe was a positive outcome of legislation passed in a preliminary Knesset vote on Tuesday to gut Baharav-Miara’s role.
“It is no coincidence that immediately after the bills regarding the attorney general were approved in the preliminary reading in the Knesset, we were informed of the decision of the attorney general to approve the opening of a criminal investigation into the Sde Teiman affair,” said the Likud minister.
The minister, who along with others on the right excoriated the manner in which nine soldiers were detained at Sde Teiman in July 2024, has not commented on the February indictment of five of of those soldiers on charges of causing severe injury and assault under aggravated circumstances.
According to Levin, the government’s appointment this year of a new Shin Bet chief and a new ombudsman for judges — in both cases, despite Baharav-Miara’s reservations — “together with the advancement of judicial legislation and the determined struggle to uncover the truth and enforce justice equally, are creating a historic change before our eyes.”
“The beginning of the end of decades of cover-up and immunity for those who belong to the ‘correct [political] camp’ are becoming apparent,” said Levin.
Likud MK Avichai Boaron also alleged that the “fabricated video” is just “the tip of the iceberg of a system that has done everything, including tarnishing Israel’s reputation in the world, to advance its own agenda in opposition to decision-makers and the elected leadership.”
Fellow Likud MK Ofir Katz, who is the coalition whip, said the video “severely harmed IDF soldiers, led to blood libels against them worldwide, and someone must pay!”
Lawmaker who stormed base accuses MAG of leaking video
Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, one of the politicians who joined the mob that stormed Sde Teiman on July 29, 2024, directly accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of leaking the video, despite her not being named a suspect in the investigation.
“In the midst of the most difficult war in Israel’s history, the Military Advocate General chose to slander IDF soldiers, claiming they were involved in the rape of terrorists,” said Sukkot.
According to Sukkot, the top IDF lawyer was responsible for spreading “insane anti-Israel propaganda around the world in the middle of the war” and should go “to prison.”
Sukkot, who was filmed pushing through the gates of Sde Teiman despite an officer’s efforts to block him, was summoned by the Southern District police on Monday for questioning on his part in the break-in.
Days after the incident, Sukkot doubled down on his actions, insisting in the Knesset that he had been doing his job and is permitted to enter “any place in the State of Israel” for the purpose of oversight.
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of Ben Gvir’s extremist Otzma Yehudit party stormed Sde Teiman alongside Sukkot and dozens of rioters hours after masked Military Police officers arrested nine soldiers there for allegedly sodomizing a Palestinian detainee.
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen took part in the demonstration outside Sde Teiman, but is not known to have broken into the compound with his fellow lawmakers.
Days after the break-in, Channel 12 played footage showing soldiers at Sde Teiman taking aside one of detainees, who had been lying face down on the floor, then surrounding him with riot shields while they allegedly abused him. The detainee was subsequently taken away for medical treatment for severe injuries, including to his rectum.
In the indictment in February against five of the soldiers, prosecutors dropped the charge of aggravated sodomy, which is equivalent to rape.
In March this year, Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman authorized a police probe of politicians who joined the rioters in Sde Teiman.
Thousands of Palestinians were detained at the facility in southern Israel following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Former inmates have reported being beaten, tortured and medically neglected at the base. The IDF has denied allegations of systematic abuse.
Charlie Summers and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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