Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari apologized Thursday, December 5, after being reprimanded for taking a public stance on a bill currently being considered in Parliament. This former marine commando, who has become a familiar face to Israelis due to his frequent televised press briefings since October 7, criticized on Wednesday evening a bill aimed at preventing soldiers or members of the defense establishment from being prosecuted for having transmitted, without prior authorization, confidential documents to the Prime Minister or to Defense officials.
Supported by two deputies from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, the Feldstein bill, named after Eliezer Feldstein, former spokesperson for the Prime Minister and main suspect in an investigation opened for leaking confidential military documents, was adopted in reading preliminary to Parliament. According to Daniel Hagari, this bill is “very dangerous, because it could allow any junior member of the IDF to steal intelligence on their own […] this endangers people’s lives and the lives of fighters. It is dangerous for the army and for the security of the country,” he insisted during his press conference on Wednesday evening.
He also clarified, in reaction to the controversy over the leak of documents, that they had “been stolen from the army and transmitted to a newspaper in Germany in a way which circumvented military censorship. This information was revealed to the enemy and undermined Israel’s security,” reports the Times of Israel. Comments which aroused the anger of the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz: “the criticisms made by the spokesperson of the Israeli Defense Forces against the executive and the legislative process of the Knesset constitute a serious incident, and a complete deviation from what is permitted and expected of a person in uniform in a democratic regime,” says the Times.
Call to order
Others, including far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also defense minister, appeared to suggest that Daniel Hagari should be removed from office. Reprimanded by the Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, Daniel Hagari apologized shortly afterwards in a message on prerogatives as spokesperson for the army, and I was reprimanded for this by the chief of staff,” he wrote. “The State of Israel is a democratic country and the IDF is subordinate to the political level,” he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, welcomed the reprimand, saying Wednesday evening, in a press release from his services, that “in a democratic country, the army should not intervene in political affairs and certainly not criticize legislation.” For his part, the outgoing member of the war cabinet and former IDF general staff, Benny Gantz, tried to close the controversy: “Tonight, he made a mistake and apologized, but his integrity is not not in doubt.”
Daniel Hagari is not his first friction with the government. In June, he had already been called to order after having described as “window dressing” the idea that we could “make Hamas disappear”, whose attack on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.