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Israel’s top military lawyer has resigned after taking responsibility for the leak of a horrific video showing the sexual abuse of a Palestinian prisoner by Israeli guards, after the military launched a investigation into the leak this week.
The military announced on Wednesday that it was opening a criminal probe into the leak in order to seek out and punish those responsible, after receiving newly obtained information on the leak from last year. Israeli ministers have long called for the prosecution of the leaker.
Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was placed on leave amid the investigation. She resigned on Friday, and said in a letter that she approved the release of the video because she felt it was her duty to shine a light on illegal actions and abuses within the military in order to maintain Israel’s credibility on the world stage.
“The [Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)] is a moral and law-abiding army. Therefore, even in a prolonged and painful war, there is an obligation to investigate suspicions of unlawful acts,” she wrote. “This is our legal and ethical duty. It does not weaken or harm the IDF. On the contrary. It is a source of strength.”
Tomer-Yerushalmi said that she hoped the release of the video could also push back on efforts by top Israeli leaders who say that allegations of abuses in prisons are fabricated, including “severe allegations suggesting that we favor terrorists over our own troops.”
She said that, while the people detained in Israeli prisons are “terror operatives of the worst kind,” (ignoring that Israel’s detainees are often Palestinians imprisoned for arbitrary reasons), she still feels they deserve to be treated within the bounds of the law. “Unfortunately, this basic understanding — that there are actions which must never be taken even against the vilest of detainees — no longer convinces everyone,” she said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz welcomed her resignation and nonsensically likened the video to “blood libel.”
“Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army’s uniform,” he said.
The video, originally shown on Israel’s Channel 12 in August of 2024, showed Israeli guards at the notorious Sde Teiman torture camp picking out an imprisoned Palestinian from a group and leading him to a wall. Using shields to cover what they were doing, they gang rape the prisoner. Media reports later found that the abuse was so severe that the prisoner was hospitalized and unable to walk afterwards.
Several soldiers were arrested for the incident, with five soldiers ultimately facing charges. Their arrest sparked riots from hundreds of Israelis, who clashed with soldiers at Sde Teiman and broke into the camp. The protesters and several Israeli ministers called for the soldiers to be released, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling them “heroic warriors.”
At the time, commentators noted that many Israeli ministers appeared more concerned about finding who leaked the video rather than the heinous contents of the video itself. The incident was just one of countless instances of torture and abuses commmitted by Israeli guards against Palestinians, reports have found. The UN Human Rights Office found in an investigation last year that Israel’s abuses of prisoners are not aberrations, but systemic and nearly universally experienced by detainees.
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