The Israeli military’s top lawyer has resigned after saying that she was responsible for the leaking of a video that purportedly shows soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.
Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the military advocate general, had been on leave since a criminal investigation was launched by police earlier this week into how the surveillance video at the Sde Teiman detention facility was leaked.
“I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army’s law enforcement authorities,” she said. That is a reference to efforts by some right-wing political figures in Israel to claim that the video and reports of abuse of detainees were fabricated.
WOW. So that’s where that video came from.
This is such a wild portrait into this attorney. They’re a lawyer in the Israeli army, so I can’t not assume that they’re ultimately complicit in so many atrocities. And yet they also did something incredibly selfless and dangerous in the name of justice, which most humans will never ever do.
It must be enormously painful to sacrifice your career and entire family’s social standing to bring a gross abuse to light, and then have much of your own society say, ‘Now that we’ve seen this proof… We’re going to stick with our position. You thought we’d change when you proved the claims of rape? No, we’re just going to admit that we endorse rape.’
I do appreciate their bravery, because the release of this video, imo, has been one of the most impactful events in the narrative of Jewish Israeli self image. This event did force a reflection. It forced Israeli Jews to confront that their actions were inconsistent with their belief that they are a righteous people. Unfortunately, it seems that when faced with this incongruity, they resolved the conflict by accepting that they’re the bad guys rather than insisting on stopping it. But I think accepting it did move the world another step towards accepting reality. And that’s progress towards the day the occupation is ended by external pressure.
Yeah honestly I’m flabbergasted by an Israeli lawyer suddenly having morals that’s the real plot twist here. But they Israel started a man-hunt against the person who leaked the video instead of their rape army…