Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Abir Sultan / AP Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sharply condemned the methods of investigating the scandal involving the leak of classified documents from his office, saying that suspects are being illegally held in basements and subjected to psychological pressure. This statement was made by the news portal TimeUkraineIsrael with reference to Vesty.
The criticism of the police and intelligence services came on Tuesday, 12 November, when Netanyahu said that the suspects had been held for 20 days without access to lawyers, forcing them to “testify against the prime minister”. “It is shocking and unacceptable for a democratic state,” the prime minister said, “to use such methods that destroy people’s lives in order to destabilise the government.
Leaks and potential security risks
Netanyahu sees the leaks, which revealed important defence information to Iran and Hamas, as a threat to national security. According to him, they give Israel’s enemies access to strategic data and complicate the work of rescuing Israeli hostages. The prime minister’s statement notes that the security services have not conducted criminal investigations into leaks from the working groups involved in the prisoner exchange and secret defence meetings.
Scandal with classified documents: suspects and their defence
The main person involved in the case is the former spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, Eli Feldstein. His lawyer, Micha Fetman, insists that Feldstein passed the documents in the interests of the state, acting in the belief that these materials would help in the process of releasing the hostages. Fetman explains that the suspect, a former intelligence officer, considered it necessary to convey this information to the prime minister for strategic decision-making.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, however, denies that he received the documents. According to his version, Feldstein did not have access to classified materials, and the prime minister himself learned about the leak only through press reports. At the same time, an IDF investigation proved that several of the published materials, including the so-called Sinwar document, were fabricated.
Falsification of documents and new evidence
The document, tentatively called the Sinwar document, published in September by Bild, allegedly contained Hamas’s strategies for negotiations with Israel. Later it turned out that the document was significantly distorted, which was confirmed by the IDF. Another outlet, The Jewish Chronicle, also removed a story about hostage-transfer plans after it became known that the document was completely fake. The editorial board apologised for this publication, and an investigation was launched against the author, who used the pseudonym Elon Perry.
The incident received additional publicity following statements by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, who confirmed that the IDF was investigating possible leaks in other publications. Currently, the security services continue to search for the source of the leak and are taking measures to protect classified information.
The leaked classified documents scandal has created a difficult situation for the Israeli government and called into question the methods of the security services. The prime minister’s statements raised questions about the ethics of investigations, and the falsification of evidence threatened the country’s security.
