Israel arrests ex-IDF legal chief over abuse video leak

What happened

Israeli authorities on Monday detained the military’s former top lawyer, accusing her of “serious criminal offenses” tied to the leak of a video that appears to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman detention center. Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned as advocate general of the Israel Defense Forces on Friday, saying she had authorized the release of the video last year to “counter false propaganda” against army prosecutors.

Who said what

Five IDF reservists were charged with severely beating the Gaza detainee and sodomizing him with a knife, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. By leaking footage of the assault to an Israeli news station, Tomer-Yerushalmi “aimed to expose the seriousness of the allegations her office was investigating,” The Associated Press said. “Instead, it triggered fierce criticism from Israel’s hard-line political leaders.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of spreading “blood libels against IDF troops.” On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “incident” in Sde Teiman was “perhaps the most severe public relations attack” Israel had ever experienced. “As Israel’s right-wing establishment has tried to paint Tomer-Yerushalmi as a traitor for impugning Israeli soldiers,” The Washington Post said, “human rights advocates pointed out that she had failed to respond to other abuse allegations against the military.”

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What next?

A judge in Tel Aviv ruled that Tomer-Yerushalmi remain in detention until at least Wednesday on charges including obstruction of justice, fraud and abuse of office. “The fury over the leaked video reveals the depth of polarization in Israel,” the AP said, “and at least for the moment, keeps the media and the public focused on the leak and not the allegations of abuse.”