Israel's military prosecutor admits she leaked video of soldiers assaulting a Palestinian detainee

JERUSALEM — Israel’s top military prosecutor resigned Friday, admitting she was responsible for leaking a video showing soldiers assaulting a Palestinian detainee at a notorious military detention center, according to excerpts of the letter published by Israeli media.

The admission has embroiled the prosecutor, Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, in a firestorm of criticism from the right-wingers dominating Israeli politics who say her actions betrayed the state.

The chain of events shows how a prosecutor such as Tomer-Yerushalmi, whose office is viewed by many human rights groups as being too soft on the wartime conduct of Israeli soldiers, faces heavy pressure from Israeli politicians to refrain from aggressively prosecuting alleged wrongdoing. It also follows broader attempts by the country’s political leaders to overhaul a judicial system that they see as an obstacle to government policies.

The leaked video was aired last year by Israel’s Channel 12 and purported to show an incident in which soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel had sodomized a Palestinian detainee from Gaza.

Israel’s military was investigating the case at the time and had arrested soldiers for suspected involvement, prompting fury from hard-line ultranationalists who violently overran the facility in protest.

In her resignation letter Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi said that she had leaked the video to counter the criticism that the military was prioritizing Palestinian detainees over Israeli troops.

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According to excerpts of the letter published in Israeli media, she wrote that the military had a “duty to investigate when there is reasonable suspicion of violence against a detainee.

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“Unfortunately, this basic understanding — that there are actions which must never be taken even against the vilest of detainees — no longer convinces everyone,” she wrote.

Defense Minister Israel Katz and a chorus of Israeli politicians castigated Tomer-Yerushalmi following her resignation, and Katz said she would not be reinstated. He said investigations would continue into those involved in the decision to leak the video.

Throughout the war, Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees from Gaza — especially at the Sde Teiman facility where the incident took place — has been characterized by rights groups as abusive. Detainees have been rounded up en masse and brought to detention facilities where they could be held for months without charge or trial. Many released detainees have reported frequent beatings from prison guards, scant food and awful conditions.