Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday took the unprecedented move of barring IDF Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi from speaking at the Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat.
Although the IDF MAG speaks at that and other bar association conferences nearly every year and often multiple times in a year as a designed non-party affiliated opportunity to send certain messages to the general public, Katz declared the event politicized.
There has been an unusual amount of tension between the government and the bar association over heavy criticism by the lawyers of the government's judicial overhaul, but the bar association does traditionally have panels with speakers from all political viewpoints and does not endorse a specific political party.
It was unclear if IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir was originally consulted on the issues or if this is the second time in a week where a political official intervened in matters of the IDF high command traditionally viewed as the purview of the IDF chief (the other incident was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointing IDF Maj. Gen. David Zini as the next chief of the Shin Bet without consulting Zamir.)
Tomer Yerushalmi has not yet publicly responded to the incident.
Kazt said she should focus her energies on defending the IDF's soldiers from war crimes allegations at international bodies and overseas.
However, one of the functions of her speeches at the bar association has been to publicize the progress of Israeli investigations into its own soldiers, something which is crucial in protecting soldiers from international war crimes probes.
According to the International Criminal Court Rome Statute, the ICC cannot probe or prosecute soldiers who the iDF has already probed.
Over 70 criminal probes opened against soldiers as of last year
In May 2024, Tomer Yerushalmi revealed to the world that the IDF had already opened over 70 criminal probes against its soldiers.
Since then, including recently, the Jerusalem Post has learned that this number is closer to 90, and that there are hundreds of serious operational probes and well over 1,000 preliminary probes.
However, since an interim report in August 2024, the IDF has not issued any public statement on the issue.
In fact, the Post has learned that a public update which was supposed to be issued in early 2025 was also blocked, and there has been no update as to when another public report will be issued.
These moves of preventing public disclosures might serve the government's political fears of being attacked for allowing prosecutions of soldiers, but could also harm Israel in defending itself globally.