As Netanyahu's Government Pounces on the IDF Video Controversy, Israelis Should Remember What It's About: Crimes, Not the Leak -
Even in the imaginary world of Israel's government, in which appearances and narratives carry more weight than reality does, the leaking of the Sde Teiman video is not "perhaps the most severe hasbara attack" in the history of the state, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it.
For the past two years the world has witnessed evidence of war crimes, including ones that Israel Defense Forces soldiers recorded and posted on TikTok, and more evidence of what is taking place behind the walls of the Israeli Guantanamo Bay will appear in the international media in the wake of the release of Palestinian detainees in accordance with the cease-fire deal.
The video's influence on the level of Israeli hasbara, or public diplomacy, is therefore negligible.
A demonstration in support of Palestinians in Madrid, Spain, in early October.Credit: Ana Beltran/Reuters
In a saner place, where hasbara and images are secondary to the reality of life, death and suffering, it's of course in poor taste for the person responsible for the greatest actual terror attack in Israel's history to talk about a "hasbara attack."
The sin of the military advocate general is not the attack on the international image of Israeli soldiers, but rather the attack on the rule of law in the attempt to cover up the investigation of the leak. But even in this case a far greater attack against the rule of law is coming, as usual, from the right.
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On Monday, Haaretz reported that Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi avoided opening investigations in several incidents that could have been violations of international law and even war crimes, after the report of abuse in Sde Teiman.
According to senior IDF sources, the military advocate general felt threatened by the incitement against her and therefore refrained from opening, advancing or accelerating investigations.
Among the incidents cited by the sources were an airstrike in Deir al-Balah in April 2024 that killed seven World Central Kitchen volunteers, an attack on a convoy of first responders in Rafah in March that killed 15 medical workers, tank fire on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and an attack on the hospital in August in which at least 20 people, including five journalists, were killed.
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SubscribeAccording to the sources, the military advocate general, who resigned last week, did not investigate the use of noncombatants as human shields, the halt of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the systematic destruction of the Strip's health care system and higher education; nor did she address the controversial conduct of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The site of an Israeli strike at Nasser Hospital, minutes before a second round of strikes hit the same spot in Khan Yunis, in August.Credit: Mariam Dagga/AP
The bottom line is clear. Threats from the right, which according to reports reached Tomer-Yerushalmi's front door; the rampages of right-wing lawmakers and cabinet members over the Sde Teiman affair and the wild incitement against her paralyzed and terrorized her and prevented her from doing her job.
This damage to the rule of law is far more serious than the damage involved in covering up the leak. Both because of its real-life implications – the conduct of IDF soldiers, the entrenchment and normalization of war crimes and the high cost to human life – and because it is a method, a mechanism of intimidation and silencing that the government applies against any legal attempt to criticize it and to investigate and stop its violations.
This aspect of the Sde Teiman affair deserves greater emphasis in the media coverage: It's not only an important discussion about the abuse of a Palestinian detainee, which the right is trying to sideline or, even worse, to claim that it's a fabrication; there is an aspect that is part of the government's attack on the rule of law and the gatekeepers.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin's predictable exploitation of the affair to attack the attorney general once again is further proof that this is the main thing on the government's mind.