Top IDF lawyer warns against calls to halt investigating soldiers’ wrongdoings during wartime

The IDF’s Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi warns against calls to halt the investigation and prosecution of soldiers during a time of war, saying it could harm the vast majority of troops who are law-abiding.

Tomer-Yerushalmi has come under threat from far-right activists after the army decided to prosecute the alleged severe abuse of a Palestinian security prisoner by Israeli guards over the summer.

“The necessity to check, investigate and prosecute — even in times of war — is our way of distinguishing between the absolute majority of soldiers, who are normative, law-abiding and imbued with a sense of mission from those who occasionally deviate from the norm,” she says during a panel at the Public Law Association conference.

“The attempt to instill fear in the hearts of law enforcement in the IDF will not succeed and will not deter anyone in the law enforcement system from carrying out their duties in a professional manner out of a commitment to the values ​​of the IDF and the rule of law,” Tomer-Yerushalmi adds.

Defenders of such investigations have argued that they are critical in demonstrating that Israel has an independent judiciary, absent which Israel exposes itself to probes in international tribunals.