The previous prime authorized officer in Israel’s army has been arrested after admitting that she approved the leak of a video that seems to point out Israeli troopers attacking a Palestinian detainee in a detention facility final 12 months.
Main Common Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi served as Navy Advocate Common of the Israel Protection Forces till Friday, Oct. 31, when she admitted in a resignation letter to having accepted the leak of the video clip to Israeli media.
She referred to as her actions, “an try and counter the false propaganda directed in opposition to the army legislation enforcement authorities,” following a backlash by members of Israel’s far-right in opposition to her division’s investigation into alleged abuse of a Palestinian prisoner.
Israeli media have reported that Tomer-Yerushalmi is ready to be questioned by investigators, and that she may face expenses together with obstruction to justice. Till not too long ago, the division she led was conducting an investigation into the identical video leak.
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The leaked video in query, which was launched to media shops in August 2024, triggered shockwaves of condemnation in Israel and overseas. The safety digital camera clip was recorded within the Sde Teiman army detention heart, and the IDF has not disputed its authenticity. It exhibits Israeli troopers carrying a blindfolded detainee behind a wall of private shields seemingly shaped by different troopers to obscure the view of the safety cameras.
Following the discharge of the video, 5 Israeli troopers had been arrested and charged with aggravated battery for extreme harm to a detainee of their custody.
In keeping with a doc detailing the fees, the troopers kicked, dragged, stepped on and tasered the detainee. The Palestinian man was admitted to a hospital with fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a rectal tear after the incident.
The investigation into the alleged assault is ongoing.
The arrests prompted indignant demonstrations in help of the accused troopers, notably with a crowd gathering and breaking into the Sde Teiman facility. Israeli media stated three members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, had been current at that protest. A second facility, the place the troopers had been being questioned, was additionally stormed by protesters.
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In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi stated there had been a “false marketing campaign of delegitimization” concentrating on her division, the position of which is to uphold the legislation throughout the IDF.
“This harmful marketing campaign reached its peak following the choice to research the Sde Teiman affair,” Tomer-Yerushalmi stated.
She additionally stated there had been “extreme allegations suggesting that we favor terrorists over our personal troops” through the investigation into the assault on the detention heart.
The fury amongst Israelis at Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 assault has fueled opposition in lots of quarters to investigations into the actions of the nation’s safety forces and Tomer-Yerushalmi was publicly criticized by senior members of the Israeli authorities through the inquiry she then led.
Shortly after her resignation on Friday, Protection Minister Israel Katz launched an announcement welcoming her departure, including: “Anybody who spreads blood libels in opposition to IDF troops is unfit to put on the military’s uniform.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated the scandal was “maybe probably the most extreme propaganda assault that the State of Israel has skilled since its institution.”
When approached in regards to the arrest of the previous prime army lawyer, the Israeli nationwide police declined to remark, noting that the investigation was nonetheless ongoing.
Palestinians launched from Israeli prisons for the reason that U.S.-brokered peace plan got here into impact in Gaza have claimed vital abuse by the hands of their jailers. The United Nations stated in September that a minimum of 75 Palestinians had died in Israeli detention for the reason that struggle in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault.
Some far-right members of the Israeli authorities have vowed to make the nation’s detention facilities much less hospitable, together with Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who’s in command of prisons within the nation, who vowed they might not be “summer time camps” beneath his watch.
CBS Information’ Michal Ben-Gal and Ofir Rosenblum contributed to this report.
