In a dramatic series of events, the former top lawyer for the Israeli military, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, finds herself imprisoned, accused of crimes not for committing abuse, but for exposing it. Her arrest follows her admission that she authorized the leak of a surveillance video from the Sde Teiman military prison, footage that shows Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee. This move, intended to showcase the severity of the crimes her office was investigating, instead triggered a firestorm of condemnation from Israel’s hard-line government, turning the whistleblower into the primary target of a state investigation.
The video that sparked the scandal, aired by an Israeli news channel in August 2024, shows a group of soldiers at the Sde Teiman facility using riot shields to create a barrier, obscuring the view of security cameras as they detain a Palestinian man. What occurred behind that wall was, according to military indictments, a brutal assault. The soldiers were charged with "acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object". The Palestinian detainee suffered life-threatening injuries, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and an inner rectal tear requiring surgery. He was later released back to Gaza in a prisoner exchange, complicating the prospects for prosecution.
Rather than focusing on the alleged torturers, the ire of Israel's political leadership fell overwhelmingly on Tomer-Yerushalmi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the leak as “the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment”. Defense Minister Israel Katz accused her of spreading “blood libels” against troops. This vitriol escalated into what critics describe as a "lynch" atmosphere. After Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned, she briefly went missing, prompting a frantic public search. When she was found alive on a Tel Aviv beach, right-wing commentator Yinon Magal posted on social media, “We can resume the lynch,” with a winking-face emoji. Other politicians and commentators baselessly accused her of staging a suicide attempt to destroy evidence.
The treatment of Tomer-Yerushalmi is seen by human rights organizations as part of a broader political battle to dismantle institutional accountability. Tal Steiner of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel noted that the state is "shooting the messenger" because the video holds an uncomfortable mirror to Israeli society. Joel Carmel of Breaking the Silence argued that the right is "making an example of her" to show anyone who would hold the government accountable that it is not worth doing so. The scandal has also engulfed Israel's Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, a long-time target of the right-wing government, which is now seizing on the crisis to push legislation that would drastically reduce her powers and independence.
The case has laid bare deep societal divisions in Israel, with the public discourse focused on the legal predicament of the leaker rather than the horrific abuse of a detainee. In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi wrote of an "incitement campaign" against her and her staff, stating, "There are things that cannot be done even against the worst of the detainees". Her disappearance and subsequent arrest is viewed by some analysts as a symbol of Israel's return to a period of intense internal strife, drawing comparisons to the politically charged climate that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The scandal raises a poignant question: in the face of severe human rights abuses, is the greater crime the act of torture, or the act of exposing it?