IDF chief defends army’s military advocate general after far-right threat

IDF chief Aviv Kohavi defends outgoing Military Advocate General Sharon Afek after a far-right activist called for him to be killed in an ongoing public fight over the army’s response to a riot along the Gaza border in which a border guard was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman at point-blank range.

“I want to give you strength in the face of — not for the first time — personal, offensive remarks. You are a terrific advocate, you are a terrific lawyer, you are an ethical man, and you are an extraordinary military advocate general,” Kohavi says, speaking at an event marking the end of Afek’s tenure in the role.

“These things are marginal, they are irrelevant, you are at a much higher ethical and humanitarian level, and we are with you,” he says.

Earlier in the day, convicted Jewish terrorist Baruch Marzel posted a photograph of Afek on Twitter, saying he should be killed for “abandoning the soul of IDF soldiers.”

“This crazy, disgusting, disconnected man should have been behind the hole in the wall in Gaza and got hit with what was meant for our soldiers,” Marzel wrote, referring to the sniper position where the Border Police officer, Barel Shmueli, was shot in the head.