The High Court of Justice on Monday ordered that the classified affidavit submitted by Brig.-Gen. “G” in the petitions against IDF Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman’s appointment as Mossad chief should be transferred, without delay, to the relevant respondents who hold the proper security clearance – in this case, the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision, issued by Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, Ofer Grosskopf, and Alex Stein, came after Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara submitted G’s affidavit to the court in a sealed envelope, saying it had been classified “top secret” by the military and not by her office.
The court said that before any decision is made on the classification of the affidavit, it must be passed “in the appropriate manner” to the respondents who have the required clearance. The court also ordered that it be updated once this has been done, after which it will decide how the case should proceed.
The affidavit has become the latest procedural flashpoint in the petitions challenging Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Gofman as the next head of the Mossad. Gofman, currently Netanyahu’s military secretary, was approved by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee and is scheduled to take office on June 2. The petitions center on the Ori Elmakayes affair, in which Elmakayes, then a minor, was allegedly used in an IDF-linked influence operation connected to the 210th Division while Gofman was its commander. Elmakayes was later detained and indicted, but the case against him collapsed.
Controversy around soldier’s operation when Gofman was IDF division commander
G’s affidavit was requested by the court after last week’s hearing, in order to clarify a May 2022 inquiry related to Gofman and the Elmakayes affair. The Attorney-General’s Office told the court that the affidavit was signed before a Military Advocate General’s Corps lawyer who serves as the legal adviser to the IDF Intelligence Directorate, and that no one from Baharav-Miara’s office was involved in preparing it or speaking with G.
A-G askes to submit additional classified material to investigation
Baharav-Miara also asked to submit additional classified material, including her initial position sent to the head of the senior appointments committee, documents from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigation file, and a letter from outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea. She argued that the previous High Court hearing had taken place without the court seeing the full classified material.
Netanyahu and the government, represented by attorney Harel Arnon, sharply opposed the request. Arnon argued that the court had asked for an affidavit only, and accused the attorney-general of trying to expand the case by submitting material that had not been before the appointments committee. He also argued that there was no classified material in Israel that the prime minister could not review, and asked the court to order that the affidavit be transferred to Netanyahu’s side and to dismiss the petitions.
Monday’s decision did not resolve the petitions or rule on the substance of the affidavit. It instead narrowed the immediate question to access: who may see the classified material before the court decides its next step.
