Katz taps former Defense Ministry legal adviser as next military advocate general

Defense Minister Israel Katz announces that he has decided to appoint Itai Ofir as the next military advocate general, after the resignation of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi last week amid the Sde Teiman leak scandal.

Ofir is an attorney who served as the Defense Ministry legal adviser between 2017 and 2024. Before that, he worked as a lawyer in the private sector in Israel and the United States.

Katz says that Ofir “has the proper qualifications to fulfill this complex and challenging role, whose importance is growing at this time, thanks to his vision, experience, abilities, and the positions he has held in the past.

“There is great importance at this time, in light of the serious facts that are being uncovered, to immediately appoint a military advocate general from outside the military advocate general [unit] — someone untainted by any suspicion and possessing the proper qualifications, who can act to cleanse, rehabilitate, and reorganize the military prosecution system based on principles that first and foremost include the protection of IDF soldiers, who are fighting bravely under difficult and complex conditions for the security of the State of Israel, and certainly not to initiate or take part in blood libels that defame IDF soldiers, harm their dignity and expose them to persecution around the world,” Katz says in a statement.

Ofir in 2022 was among the candidates for the role of Israel’s attorney general, although he was ultimately not selected. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s in business administration from Bar-Ilan University, as well as a master’s in law from Harvard University.

In the military, Ofir was a combat officer in the Givati Brigade and in the reserves served in the Negev Brigade.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the appointment, which is normally made by the IDF chief of staff and approved by the defense minister.

It is unclear if the appointment will be accepted as legal, as according to the Military Justice Law — the legal framework for military jurisdiction in Israel — the military advocate general must be “a military attorney with at least seven years of legal experience,” which removes the possibility of a civilian legal expert, or even a senior IDF officer who is not an attorney, serving in the role.