Israel's AG asks High Court to block Mossad chief appointee

Israel's Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara has urged the High Court of Justice to intervene and block Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appointment of Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman as the next Mossad chief. Baharav-Miara contends that the Advisory Committee for Senior Appointments' renewed approval of Gofman is unreliable and fails to adequately address critical documents and testimony related to past events.

In a filing late Wednesday, the Attorney-General stated that the committee majority did not properly consider key evidence from the time of the events in question. This led her to conclude that its opinion could not serve as a valid basis for Netanyahu's decision. The petitions challenging Gofman's appointment center on the Ori Elmakayes affair.

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the committee majority failed to properly address key documents and testimony from the time of the events, and that its opinion could not serve as a valid basis for Netanyahu’s decision.

The Elmakayes affair involves claims that Elmakayes, then a minor, was allegedly used in 2022 by IDF Division 210 as part of an influence operation while Gofman commanded the division. Elmakayes was later arrested, indicted, and eventually released to house arrest. His indictment was canceled in 2023 after his lawyers successfully argued he had been operated by the division, a claim the attorney-general later confirmed as correct.

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the central issue is not whether Gofman knew Elmakayes by name at the time, but whether he knew that his division had been in contact with an Israeli Telegram operator as part of an influence operation - and whether he failed to disclose that information when it mattered.

This is not the first review of Gofman's appointment. The High Court had previously ordered the committee to complete its review after finding its initial decision lacked relevant documents and testimony. Following this, the committee heard from Elmakayes, a brigadier general who headed the IDF Intelligence Directorate’s operational activation division, the officer in direct contact with Elmakayes, and Gofman himself. Despite this, a majority of the committee again found no integrity flaw barring Gofman's appointment, though committee chairman Asher Grunis dissented.

Baharav-Miara's latest filing supports Grunis's position, criticizing the committee majority. She argues the core issue is not whether Gofman knew Elmakayes personally, but whether he was aware of his division's contact with an Israeli Telegram operator for an influence operation and failed to disclose this information. A May 2022 memo, she noted, showed Gofman answered negatively when asked about any connection to a Telegram channel dealing with security affairs, a response she believes was inaccurate.

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that document strengthened Grunis’s finding that Division 210, and Gofman specifically, did not give an accurate answer when asked a concrete question.