Netanyahu submits response to High Court petition against incoming Mossad director

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submits his response to a petition at the High Court of Justice against the appointment of Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the next director of the Mossad intelligence agency.

The premier argues in his response that Gofman’s appointment is a security decision and therefore should be mostly exempt from judicial oversight.

“There is actually good reason to assume that the rationality for the prime minister’s decision is ten times better than the ‘rationality’ of anyone else, including the honorable court,” he writes.

“The responsibility for the security of the state and its citizens lies with the prime minister, and him alone.”

The petition against Gofman, who has been serving as Netanyahu’s military secretary, was filed by Ori Elmakayes and Telem – the Movement for Integrity in Government, and focused on Gofman’s authorization in 2022, while commanding the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division in the Golan Heights, to use Elmakayes, then 17, in an Arabic-language influence campaign.

As a result of Gofman’s actions, Elmakayes was detained and interrogated by the Shin Bet domestic security agency, held in isolation for two months, charged with espionage offenses, and held in detention for 18 months before the charges were dropped.

Telem stated that the petition cites this affair as well as what it said was Gofman’s failure to tell the truth to IDF investigators who probed the incident. Additionally, Telem noted that Gofman “was silent” during the legal proceedings against Elmakayes, and cited “his failure to take responsibility for the affair and the abuse of a minor who had committed no offense, and his untrustworthiness.”

The petition also underlined the opposition of the chair of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, retired Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, to Gofman’s appointment.

In their joint decision, the three junior members of the committee approved Gofman’s appointment and said that the incident should not keep Gofman from serving as the head of the Mossad, while Grunis, in a separate opinion, recommended that Gofman be disqualified.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.