Lawmaker, others back IDF officer accused of rape

Knesset member Merav Ben Ari (Kulanu) on Saturday said she hoped top IDF officer Ofek Buchris — accused of rape by a subordinate soldier — would be found innocent, joining a groundswell of support for the popular commander.

In a Facebook post, Ben Ari said she knew Buchris personally from her army service and he always “acted respectfully and modestly toward women.”

“I know that this isn’t popular during these times to say that I hope Ofek is found innocent in this case,” she wrote. “I may be attacked by women’s groups over my defense, but I thought about it all weekend and I couldn’t hold back my personal opinion on Ofek.”

A petition supporting Buchris launched last week garnered over 7,500 supporters as of Sunday.

On Tuesday, news broke that a female 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 him of sexual assault, adding to the allegations against Buchris a high-ranking, highly decorated officer who had been expected to rise to the 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 this 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.