Police said to probe protest leader Shikma Bressler over post that mistakenly said Tomer-Yerushalmi had died

Protest leader Shikma Bressler speaks in Caesarea at the start of a national 'day of disruption,' in protest of the government, May 20, 2024. (Reuven G.Sz / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Protest leader Shikma Bressler speaks in Caesarea at the start of a national 'day of disruption,' in protest of the government, May 20, 2024. (Reuven G.Sz / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Police are reportedly investigating prominent anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler after she wrote a social media post that mistakenly said former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi had died, and blamed a far-right ideology for motivating her death.

Police conducted a search for Tomer-Yerushalmi after she disappeared this morning. She was later found alive. The former IDF official resigned from her post on Friday and confessed that she had been behind the leak of surveillance footage depicting alleged abuse of a Gazan detainee by several soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

“Those who incited against Rabin have gained control over the police,” Bressler wrote in the post on X, appearing to refer to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was filmed as a teenager threatening former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin prior to Rabin’s assassination, 30 years ago by far-right extremist Yigal Amir.

Bressler added, “But there should be no doubt, the same ideology that brought about Rabin’s murder also pushed the military advocate general to her death.”

When Tomer-Yerushalmi was located alive on the Tel Aviv coast, Bressler deleted the post.

Police chief Danny Levy instructed law enforcement to investigate Bressler on suspicion of incitement and obstruction of an investigation, Hebrew outlets reported.

Bressler also referred to the Sde Teiman incident in the post, accusing law enforcement of failing to protect soldiers or the state prosecutor’s office when “an incited mob from within the Knesset and without broke into Sde Teiman and Beit Lid.” The two military bases were stormed by a right-wing mob protesting the Military Police’s arrest of several soldiers suspected of abusing the inmate.

It was “under this abhorrent pressure that the military advocate general made a mistake,” Bressler continues, referring to the leak.

Tomer-Yerushalmi earlier this week confessed to leaking the surveillance footage in an attempt to “counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities.”

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