World

Israeli Finance Ministry freezes pension to scandal-embroiled former military advocate general

21h ago · Source: JNS 79Objectivity score79/100

Israel’s Finance Ministry put on ice a decision to transfer pension payments to a former IDF military advocate general dismissed from the army, under investigation and embroiled in controversy. The news came to light when the ex-MAG’s private attorney complained that her client hadn’t received her money.

The ministry’s accountant general, Michal Abadi-Boyanjo, stopped the decision by IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, to allow the former MAG, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, to receive her military pension.

The sums involved are reportedly in the millions of shekels.

Upon receiving the complaint about the non-payment from Yerushalmi’s attorney, Zamir sent a message to the accountant general demanding the money’s release. “The decision is within my authority,” he said, according to Ynet on Thursday.

The accountant general was unmoved. She informed Zamir that the Finance Ministry was examining the reasonableness of his decision given the large sums involved and the fact that an investigation into Tomer-Yerushalmi’s actions is ongoing.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich let his view be known in a post to X on Thursday: “The State of Israel, IDF soldiers, and fighters of Force 100 paid a very heavy price for the criminal conduct of the Military Advocate General (MAG). There is no reason in the world for her to receive even a single shekel from the State of Israel until a definitive resolution in the criminal proceedings.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz called to deprive Tomer-Yerushalmi of all benefits, accusing her of “fabricating a blood libel against IDF soldiers. … The offenses committed by Yerushalmi are among the most serious in the history of the IDF.”

On May 26, Zamir dismissed Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was under investigation over her role in leaking a video in the Sde Teiman Affair, which involved accusations of sexual abuse by Israeli prison guards against a Gazan detainee. (She had already been suspended in November 2025 after the allegations surfaced.)

“In light of the prolongation of the criminal proceedings, the IDF chief of staff, given the severity of [her] acts and the suspicions, decided to dismiss the former MAG from service without further delay,” the IDF said.

However, Zamir said she could keep her pension, blocking only the “chief of staff increase,” a pension supplement frequently granted to career officers.

On July 29, 2024, IDF Military Police arrested nine IDF reservists guarding the Sde Teiman detention center in the Negev. The makeshift prison near Beersheva had been housing terrorists captured in Gaza, many of whom were directly involved in the attacks and atrocities against civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.

The reservists were arrested in connection to the investigation of an incident of alleged sexual abuse of an imprisoned Hamas terrorist. Five of the nine would be indicted on Feb. 19, 2025.

The accused reservists rejected the allegations, claiming in court that a video, the most salacious piece of evidence in the case, had been doctored using footage from two separate days, and that they used proportionate force to subdue the terrorist.

Tomer-Yerushalmi, the IDF’s top lawyer, was in charge of prosecuting the suspects. To counter criticism that she had falsely accused the soldiers, she illegally ordered that the video footage from the detention center be leaked to the press.

On March 12, 2026, the new military advocate general, Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir, announced he was dropping the indictments of the five reservists.

Tomer-Yerushalmi acknowledged in her letter of resignation that she was behind the August 2025 leak, claiming that she did it to “fend off false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities.”

The footage, itself far from conclusive, fueled anti-Israel propaganda worldwide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of being responsible for “perhaps the most severe public relations attack the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”

Netanyahu said the PR damage Israel suffered due to the leak was more intensely focused than any previous assault on its international legitimacy that he could recall.

Her part in the scandal may have never been uncovered but for a failed polygraph test. A senior official in her department failed the routine test prior to a promotion. The test was unrelated to the Sde Teiman affair, but when the official failed, investigators notified the new head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), David Zini, who passed the information along to the IDF chief of staff.

The investigation into Tomer-Yerushalmi is ongoing. In February, the police completed their part of the investigation. In August, the Israel Supreme Court cleared State Attorney Amit Aisman, Israel’s chief prosecutor, to handle the investigation. He will decide whether to indict Tomer-Yerushalmi.