Amid alleged inconsistencies, accuser stands by claims against top IDF officer

A former female soldier who claimed to have received inappropriate text messages from Brig.-Gen. Ofek Buchris, a high-ranking IDF official accused in at least two separate cases of sexual assault, stood by her allegations Friday, even after Israeli TV uncovered inconsistencies in her version of events.

In a Facebook post uploaded Thursday, the woman claimed that during Buchris’s tenure as commander of the elite Golani Brigade, the senior officer attempted to sway her to accept a job as his secretary — although he never met her in person. The woman, who said she had only recently been recruited to the army when the events purportedly took place, added that Buchris also sent her text messages that she claimed dealt with her physical appearance.

But according to Channel 2, Buchris only assumed the position of Golani commander at around the time when the woman was set to be discharged from the military, at least a year-and-a-half after the text messages were allegedly sent.

After she was approached by Channel 2, the accuser on Friday uploaded a revised version of her earlier Facebook post, in which she insisted that while she may have made a mistake in the timeline of events, the text messages were nevertheless sent to her by Buchris. She added that Buchris had attempted to “hit on her” while serving in a high-ranking position in the brigade.

In her first Facebook post, the woman wrote that “because the [Buchris] affair has come to light now, I remember that one day he sent me a message saying that he had seen me from afar, and that I’m very pretty.” She added that at the time she had been “a young an innocent girl,” and that “if [the same thing] were to happen now, I would immediately complain.”

Bucharis’s attorney Oded Savorai accused the woman of fabricating the story, insisting that the text messages in question had never been sent. He said that he would recommend Bucharis sue the woman for writing the post.

On Tuesday, news broke that one soldier, who served in Buchris’s office when he was head of the Golani Brigade from 2010 to 2012, had accused him of rape and sexual assault.

According to this accuser, the acts were committed over an extended period of time. “There was no romance here, it was sexual exploitation,” the woman’s attorney said. On Wednesday, a second former soldier came forward to accuse Buchris of sexual assault, adding to the allegations against the high-ranking, highly decorated officer who had been expected to rise to the very top of the IDF echelons.

Reports of the first soldier’s allegations sent shockwaves through the IDF and the rest of the country, as Buchris’s previously glowing reputation was suddenly called into question.

Buchris, who was shot and critically injured during an operation in the West Bank in 2002, has denied all of the allegations against him.

But the incident has at least temporarily disrupted Buchris’s planned promotion to head of the army’s Operations Division. The position is generally seen as a stepping stone to higher office, as the brigadier general who serves in the role manages the army’s most important missions and works closely with the IDF General Staff. Buchris’s appointment could have taken place this month, but instead the brigadier general has been suspended until further notice.

Buchris, who lives in a religious community in the Galilee, was questioned Wednesday for a second time by the Military Police investigations unit, and is scheduled to be questioned for a third time next week. Investigators expect more women to come forward now that Buchris’s name, which was initially withheld from publication, has been released.

Judah Ari Gross and Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.