Supreme Court refuses to allow PM’s chief of staff to appeal his release conditions

The Supreme Court on Sunday rejected Tzachi Braverman‘s request to file an appeal against the restrictive conditions that were imposed on him while he is under suspicion of interfering with a police investigation.

Braverman — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, who was appointed to be ambassador to the United Kingdom but has yet to take up the post — is barred from leaving the country, and cannot contact Netanyahu or other officials in the Prime Minister’s Office as conditions for his release from detention.

The court ruled Sunday that Braverman’s case is not the right opportunity to consider whether the public interest can factor into matters regarding arrest and release conditions. Braverman has argued that it is in the public interest for the restriction on his leaving the country to be lifted, since it is delaying his ability to take up his post as UK ambassador and harming relations between the two countries.

Judge David Mintz said that the restrictions are due to expire on Tuesday, and that Israel’s diplomatic standing is unlikely to be harmed during that period to an extent that would justify changing the balance between the needs of investigators and the public good.

Mintz also pointed out that the ambassador post has been empty since September 2025, and that even though Braverman was appointed that month, it was decided he would not begin his term until January 2026 for professional reasons and due to his position as the chief of staff to the prime minister.

Braverman is being investigated on suspicion of interfering with an investigation and other crimes, in connection with allegations that Braverman told Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Netanyahu, that he could quash a military investigation into Feldstein over the leak of a classified document to the German newspaper Bild.

Last week, the Lod-Central District Court extended his restrictions, saying evidence gathered during the police investigation had “substantially strengthened” the suspicions against him.

The decision overturned a ruling the previous week by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court that rejected the police request to extend the restrictive conditions.

The restriction — extended by the district court until February 24 — include barring Braverman from the Prime Minister’s Office and IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv; prohibiting him from contacting Feldstein, who is a suspect in the Bild and Qatargate investigations, Netanyahu himself, and a list of other employees in the PMO; and prohibiting him from leaving the country.

The police investigation into Braverman is focused on an alleged nighttime meeting he set up in the underground parking lot of the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv with Feldstein.

During the meeting, Feldstein alleges that Braverman told him he was aware of what should have been a secret IDF investigation into Feldstein’s leak of classified intelligence, which Braverman said he could quash.

Additionally, police took testimony from Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, a controversial ex-general, as part of the investigation into the alleged illicit meeting, Channel 13 reported Thursday.

Winter gave testimony to police about his personal ties with Feldstein and what the ex-spokesman told him about the meeting, according to Channel 13.

Responding to a request for comment from the outlet, Winter said he was asked by police to give open testimony and “did so willingly.”

The investigation into Braverman stems from the broader investigation into the Bild leaked documents affair, in which Feldstein and a reservist NCO who leaked him the material have already been indicted, and in which two other senior aides to Netanyahu, Jonatan Urich and Israel Einhorn, are key suspects. The documents purported to show that the Hamas leadership was not interested in a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and were leaked as part of an effort to buttress Netanyahu’s claim that it was not he who was holding up such an agreement.

Feldstein, Urich and Einhorn are all also implicated in the Qatargate investigation, in which they are suspected of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and while Feldstein and Urich were working as aides to Netanyahu.