The outrage has been all about who leaked the footage and who is hurting Israel’s image, not what actually happened at the Sde Teiman detention camp
“I would never, ever publish a video that makes IDF soldiers look bad, even when they did something wrong, out of the understanding that it could tarnish our image in the eyes of the entire world.”
These are not the words of the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief. They were not even written by a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Shockingly, they came from a journalist, Amichai Attali, a political correspondent for one of Israel’s most popular newspapers.
The words came from a much longer post published on X in response to a saga that is dominating Israeli headlines: in July 2024, legal authorities in the IDF opened an investigation into soldiers who were allegedly shown beating and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee. Then, in August, a video was leaked to the press, allegedly showing the abuse at the Sde Teiman military base. Five guards were arrested – all Israeli soldiers – and later indicted.
In recent days the IDF’s legal chief, Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, has been directly tied to the leak – and, moreover, to a subsequent cover-up. An internal investigation into the leak found no one to blame. Only recently did a routine polygraph test, taken by an officer from the IDF’s legal office, raise suspicions about questionable contacts with journalists. From there, it all went downhill for the legal chief, who eventually resigned from her post on 31 October. In her resignation letter, she said: “I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army’s law enforcement authorities.”
