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A single arrest has thrown the battle for Israel’s soul into sharp relief
In Israel, an unfolding military scandal has become a mirror held up to a society that seems determined to look away from its reflection.
The protagonist is Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, until recently the chief legal officer of the Israel Defense Forces. At the end of October, Tomer-Yerushalmi wrote in a public resignation letter that she had authorized the leak of a video showing a Palestinian detainee being abused by Israeli soldiers in 2024. A few days later, at the start of last week, she was arrested.
The fact that Tomer-Yerushalmi was arrested should have been an opportunity for national soul-searching. But almost no one asked the most fundamental questions: Why did her transgression happen? Why was she the person to bring the abuse to light?
The answers, I think, tell a grim story about the state of Israel’s national conscience.
The official story, repeated endlessly in the Israeli press, is that Tomer-Yerushalmi violated secrecy laws, obstructed justice, and lied about her role when questioned by the authorities and the Supreme Court. All of those claims may be true. She herself has admitted to authorizing the leak and later trying to hide it.
Television studios hosted panels on whether Tomer-Yerushalmi had disgraced the army. The prime minister’s spokesman, before her detention, issued a statement calling for her arrest. But the widespread outrage has focused overwhelmingly not on what the video revealed, but on the fact that it was leaked.
Why?
Restraint and legality are supposed to distinguish Israel from its foes. The video does not demonstrate those qualities. In it, soldiers at a military detention facility called Sde Teiman, in southern Israeli, escort a blindfolded Palestinian detainee into a tent, largely shielding themselves from the camera’s view. At points, the detainee they surround can be seen pinned against a wall and lying on the floor.
Five reservists were eventually indicted for “severe abuse” of a detainee in relation to the video, with military prosecutors alleging that the victim sustained broken ribs, a punctured lung, and internal injuries consistent with a stabbing by a sharp object.
Wars are ugly, and the enemies Israel faces are real. No one doubts that Hamas and other militant groups have committed barbaric acts. But for Israel to sanction or ignore such abuse against captives would be for it to betray its own moral foundation.
Highly vocal yet minority factions of Israeli society demanded that the reservists be freed and minimized the issue. There was a protest by far-right Knesset members at the base where they served; on social media, some dismissed the gravity of the charges, suggesting that with Israel engaged in so dire a war against so rabid an enemy, the finer points of the law are absurd.
That’s not the only reason that the outrage over Tomer-Yerushalmi’s actions seems shockingly disproportionate. Also important is that across many different administrations, the prime minister’s office has been known to leak as a matter of routine — to almost no protest whatsoever.
I can report from experience that the PM’s office routinely leaks information about classified meetings of the Security Cabinet under absurd conditions. Successive governments have used controlled leaks to shape narratives, deflect blame and undermine rivals. Journalists in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv live off an endless stream of “sources familiar with the matter” or “officials close to the prime minister,” many of them senior officials.
The sanctity of secrecy, apparently, only becomes a principle when someone leaks for moral reasons, rather than political ones. Tell me if that calculus seems reasonable to you.
In a healthy society, I think, people would be much more alarmed by the reasons Tomer-Yerushalmi chose to leak the video, rather than the leak itself. She seems to have believed that the army would bury the incident, or that investigators would be pressured to look away.
Was she wrong? The record suggests not. Look to the West Bank, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent years amid almost daily violence. Soldiers who allegedly bore responsibility for the deaths — the details of which can be absolutely brutal — have rarely faced serious punishment. The military and state have convicted exactly zero soldiers for abuses during the war.
When the army’s own legal chief suspects a cover-up, she’s raising an alarm about the system she served. The fact that Israel is apparently refusing to listen is telling, and terrifying.
What this episode truly exposes is the extent to which Israel’s moral instincts have been replaced by bureaucratic ones: Maintain the facade, contain the damage and punish the breach. A society that talks more about the propriety of a leak than the content of the leak is a society in denial.
This distortion did not emerge overnight. It is the product of the almost 60 years of occupation that have habituated Israelis to controlling another people; the two-year trauma since Oct. 7 that has consumed our empathy; and the political culture, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that has trained us to prize survival over principle. The result is a public sphere where accountability feels like betrayal, and secrecy masquerades as patriotism.
No one expects a country under constant threat to be saintly. But the essence of a liberal democracy is its willingness to look unflinchingly at its own sins. Israel’s founders built institutions precisely for that purpose: a free press, an independent judiciary, a military legal corps charged with enforcing law in the fog of war. Israel’s current leadership — and to a degree, its media as well — is betraying that legacy.
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Chair of Britain’s largest arts center to step down amid antisemitism scrutiny
(JTA) — The chair of the United Kingdom’s largest arts institution will step down this fall following months of controversy over allegations of antisemitism and his social media activity related to Israel.
Misan Harriman, 48, the chair of the publicly funded Southbank Centre in central London that hosts millions of visitors per year, publicly stated earlier this week that he would not seek another term.
In a since-deleted social media post, Harriman stated on Monday that his departure had long been planned. “It’s semi-public knowledge that my term is coming to an end anyway,” he said, according to The Guardian. “I had decided way before this madness that I was going to do two terms.” He added, “I came on just after Covid, two terms, then handing the baton to whoever the next chairman will be. We will find out in due course, and of course, I am going to support that.”
The Southbank Centre said that it had been informed earlier in the year of Harriman’s decision.
In May, more than 64 MPs and peers wrote to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy asking the government to open an investigation into Harriman’s behavior, expressing concern that his public comments “have not been treated with sufficient scrutiny, particularly given their implications for public trust and community confidence,” in a publicly funded institution.
Nandy later confirmed that the Charity Commission and Arts Council England were examining complaints, alongside an internal review by the Southbank Centre.
Harriman, a photographer and self-described social activist, came to prominence in 2020, photographing a Black Lives Matter protest in London. He has overseen the Southbank Centre since 2021, but it’s only in recent months that he has faced increasing scrutiny over his public and social media comments, including referring to Israel as an “occupying power” and accusing the country of genocide.
In April, when two Jewish men were stabbed in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green in London, Harriman posted on social media about an alleged third victim who was Muslim. He wrote, “Wait, so there was a 3rd victim on the SAME DAY who was Muslim?! And our press isn’t reporting it? Even the Met Police didn’t mention the Muslim victim in its X post?! What is going on @metpolice_uk ?”
The Muslim victim did in fact receive coverage, and the focus on the Jewish victims stemmed from the alleged attacker’s anti-Jewish animus.
Then, following Reform UK’s gains in the May 7 local elections, Harriman shared a post that critics said compared the party’s success to the events that led to the Holocaust.
The post prompted Reform MP Robert Jenrick to respond on X, “Comparing the millions who voted Reform on Thursday to the Nazis is disgusting.”
Harriman received support from many prominent activists and artists who signed a petition in May organized by The Good Law Project. The petition accused right-wing media of running a smear campaign against Harriman.
Those who signed included activist Greta Thunberg, actors Aimee Lou Wood, Mark Ruffalo, and Susan Sarandon, director Yorgos Lanthimos and journalist Mehdi Hassan.
Following Harriman’s announcement, the Campaign Against Antisemitism praised the decision, posting on X, “Mr Harriman’s decision to step down – supposedly always his intention – is welcome. This saga has exposed a rot in the arts world. We hope that his successor will be more worthy of the post.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries
(New York Jewish Week) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the victories of the progressive candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries describing their success as a “shift in the balance of power.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the morning after the primaries, Mamdani touted the triumphs as a shift in the balance of power between “working people” and “special interests.”
Mamdani-endorsed candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won Democratic nominations for Congress. During the press conference, the mayor repeatedly highlighted their calls to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel and redirect federal funding to domestic priorities.
Following Mamdani’s election night sweep in New York, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”
The victories offered an early demonstration of Mamdani’s political influence beyond City Hall, as several Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, including Chevalier, defeated established Democratic incumbents in their districts.
“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said, adding that Avila Chevalier’s oft-repeated slogan of investing in “Babies not Bombs,” is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”
Mamdani responded to the president’s post on Wednesday, telling a reporter who asked whether his goal is to make America a “socialist” country that his “goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”
When asked about federal policies that could be affected by Mamdani’s endorsed candidates, the mayor cited Valdez’s support for “foreign policy that understands human rights for all” and Lander’s commitment to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the sale of certain U.S.-made offensive weapons to Israel.
Mamdani also dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about how the victories would play out in November as Democrats try to win back the House.
“Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” he said.
When asked whether the election of Chevalier, who has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and her appearance at an Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, could “complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole,” Mamdani replied “No.”
“[Chevalier] often speaks about a politics of life. She speaks about ‘Babies not bombs,’” Mamdani continued. “What could be a better example of what the people of the district want to see versus what the people of the district have been forced to experience, which is tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”
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Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary
(New York Jewish Week) — David Orkin, a Jewish anti-Zionist attorney and democratic socialist, defeated incumbent New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Orkin won State Assembly District 38, which includes parts of Queens.
Orkin, an immigrant workers’ rights attorney and union organizer, received 58.8% of the vote, while Rajkumar, who has represented the district since 2021 and is the first South Asian woman ever elected to office in the state, received 40.9%. The district covers a swath of Queens, including parts of Ridgewood, Glendale, Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.
“Pro-Palestine candidates are sweeping in NYC tonight,” Jewish Voice for Peace Action wrote in a post on Instagram celebrating Orkin’s win Tuesday. “Palestine was on the ballot — and won. David will be a champion for Palestinian freedom in Albany.”
The post from JVP Action echoed a message Orkin had highlighted throughout his campaign.
“It’s so incredibly meaningful to me to be running this race as an anti-Zionist Jew, to be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices that is in an elected seat in the state government,” Orkin said in an Instagram reel posted by Jewish Voice for Peace Action earlier this month.
He added that, if elected, he would be able to go in front of the state legislature and assert that “criticizing Israel for genocide, demanding an end to the occupation, demanding an end to funding war abroad is not antisemitic.”
Orkin’s victory came amid a strong night for democratic socialist candidates across New York City, including left-wing congressional candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, who also defeated establishment-backed opponents in their primaries.
While Orkin was not endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose winning endorsements of Lander, Chevalier and Valdez signaled a pro-Palestinian lurch for the party in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel. Nonetheless, his victory elevated a self-described anti-Zionist to the ranks of New York’s elected officials at a time when debates over Israel have become increasingly prominent within Democratic politics.
While Israel-related issues were not listed on Orkin’s platform, which centered on affordability and immigration, he repeatedly expressed his support for a “free Palestine” and attacked Rajkumar’s record of support for the Jewish state during his campaign.
“In the past several years my opponent AM Rajkumar has walked in the Israel day parade but has said NOTHING against the war in Gaza, occupation of Palestine, or Islamophobic attacks faced by the people of New York,” Orkin wrote in a May post on X.
Rajkumar, who was a close political ally of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in her campaign platform vowed to combat antisemitism.
After establishing a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in Tucson, Arizona, in 2014, Orkin remained involved in pro-Palestinian activism as a member of the anti-Zionist activist group.
“I’ve been involved in the Jewish Palestine Solidarity Movement for 12, 13 years,” Orkin told Democratic Left last month. “I’ve dedicated part [of my] life to making sure that Jewish people are creating religious spaces outside of Zionism, and to making more space for Palestinian organizing to have an impact.”
On the campaign trail, Orkin received a host of endorsements from prominent progressive groups and lawmakers, including Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, JVP Action and NYC Democratic Socialists for America.
Rajkumar was endorsed by ActJew, the new nonprofit focused on combatting antisemitism, as well as the Queens Jewish Alliance and Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Kalman Yeger and Chuck Lavine.
Orkin received over $290,000 in campaign contributions for the election cycle, including over $156,000 from the office of the state comptroller, while Rajkumar received over $270,000, including $9,000 from health care executive Daniel Lowy.
“I have dedicated my life fighting for immigrants and workers, I am proud to have earned their support in this election, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life winning the beautiful and joyous lives we deserve,” Orkin said in a statement, according to QNS.
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