Israel: Katz blocks IDF MAG from speaking to lawyers association

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday took the unprecedented move of barring IDF Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi from speaking at the Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat.

Although the IDF MAG speaks at that and other bar association conferences nearly every year and often multiple times in a year as a designed non-party affiliated opportunity to send certain messages to the general public, Katz declared the event politicized.

There has been an unusual amount of tension between the government and the bar association over heavy criticism by the lawyers of the government’s judicial overhaul, but the bar association does traditionally have panels with speakers from all political viewpoints and does not endorse a specific political party.

It was unclear if IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir was originally consulted on the issues or if this is the second time in a week where a political official intervened in matters of the IDF high command traditionally viewed as the purview of the IDF chief (the other incident was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointing IDF Maj. Gen. David Zini as the next chief of the Shin Bet without consulting Zamir.)