Jerusalem, MINA – Until last week, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was Israel’s top military lawyer. She is now behind bars and at the center of a scandal shaking the occupying state, following a series of strange events including her sudden resignation.
According to NPR on Tuesday, the scandal was triggered last week by Tomer-Yerushalmi’s shocking admission that she had authorized the leak of a surveillance video at the heart of an ongoing investigation — footage that shows the severe torture of a Palestinian detainee in one of Israel’s notoriously harsh military prisons.
The video depicts part of an assault in which Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually abused a Palestinian prisoner.
By leaking the video last year, Tomer-Yerushalmi sought to expose the seriousness of the allegations under her office’s investigation. However, the move instead sparked fierce backlash from Israel’s hardline political leaders.
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After resigning under pressure last week, Tomer-Yerushalmi continued to face personal attacks from her critics.
She reportedly left a secret note for her family and abandoned her car near a beach, prompting fears that she had taken her own life and triggering an intensive search operation involving military drones.
She was found alive on the beach Sunday night, which only fueled further hostility toward her.
“We can proceed with the hanging,” wrote right-wing TV personality Yinon Magal, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on X, adding a winking emoji.
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After it was revealed that one of Tomer-Yerushalmi’s phones had gone missing, right-wing politicians and commentators accused her of staging a suicide attempt as a way to destroy potential evidence.
The U.S. outlet National Public Radio (NPR) wrote: “This extraordinary episode shows that two years of devastating war have done little to heal a nation deeply divided even before Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.”
NPR also noted that Tomer-Yerushalmi has become the latest senior security official in a long line of top figures who have resigned or been forced out, most of whom are expected to be replaced by individuals deemed loyal to Netanyahu and his hardline government.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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