Law granting immunity to IDF members who give classified intel to PM passes preliminary reading

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

A bill providing criminal protection to IDF soldiers and members of the intelligence and security services who give intelligence without authorization to the prime minister and members of his security cabinet passes a preliminary reading in the Knesset 53-43.

The so-called Feldstein Law II, sponsored by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, would allow soldiers to bypass the chain of command and violate information security protocols in the event that the data is absolutely essential for state security or to prevent harm to human life and is being shared due to a belief that it was being concealed from a senior political figure.

In addition, the legislation stipulates that the soldier sharing the information must not act out of an intent to harm national security and has to take all reasonable measures to prevent the data’s disclosure to an unauthorized party.

“This law… says that if you provide a senior political figure with information that is truly essential, similar to exposing corruption – then you have a kind of immunity,” declares Rothman.

In its explanatory notes, the bill states that warnings ahead of October 7 were “not brought to the attention of elected officials.”

A similar bill passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum in early December. That legislation, dubbed the Feldstein Law, would prevent the prosecution of soldiers or other members of the defense establishment who give classified intelligence to the prime minister or defense minister without authorization.

Rothman’s bill is slightly more expansive than the first Feldstein Law, providing legal protection for those who share classified information with security cabinet members and the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee rather than just the prime minister and defense minister.

The bills were introduced after IDF reserves noncommissioned officer Ari Rosenfeld was arrested on suspicion of having leaked intelligence information to former spokesman and aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Eli Feldstein.

In the wake of the pair’s arrest, Netanyahu alleged that vital classified documents weren’t reaching him, which was why the suspects passed them from the Israel Defense Forces to the Prime Minister’s Office — a claim that the military and defense establishment, which came out against the Feldstein Bill, have rejected.

The bills, if passed, are unlikely to provide retroactive legal protection to Rosenfeld.

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