Military Advocate-General Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, a resident of Ramat Hasharon, made history in 2021 when she became the first female to hold the position as the Israeli military's top attorney.
Fifty-one-year-old Tomer-Yerhsualmi, who is married with three children, replaced Sharon Afek as MAG in September of 2021, and at the time, was viewed as a stellar candidate who would have won the “race” for the post simply based on her résumé and personal qualities, according to reporting by The Jerusalem Post's Yonah Jeremy Bob.
Tomer-Yerushalmi's rise in the IDF legal division
She was born in Netanya in 1974 and earned a bachelor’s degree in law from the Hebrew University, following which she joined the IDF legal division in 1996.
In 1999, she received a master’s degree in law from Tel Aviv University and received a second master’s degree in law from the elite US Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2003.
Within the IDF legal division, she had two key posts early on, working directly with the army’s chief prosecutor and later with then-MAG (and later district court judge) Menachem Finkelstein.
From 2007-2015, she served as an IDF judge, achieving multiple promotions. In 2015, she returned to the IDF legal division as chief of the entire legal advice division and with the rank of colonel. Then, in July 2019, she was promoted by then-IDF chief Aviv Kohavi to handle gender issues for the entire military.
She became the second woman in IDF history to gain the rank of Maj.-Gen. after becoming MAG in 2021, second only to former Yesh Atid MK Orna Barbivay, who previously served as the IDF's Manpower Directorate head.
Tomer-Yerushalmi and the Sde Teiman abuse affair
On Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned from her post around an hour after Defense Minister Israel Katz attempted to fire her after she admitted to leaking a video detailing the abuse of Palestinian prisoners at the military' Sde Teiman base.
"I approved the leaking of evidence to the media in an attempt to confront the false propaganda against the law enforcement officials in the military," she wrote in her resignation letter. "I take full responsibility for all of the evidence that was sent out to the media by this unit. Based on this responsibility, I have also decided to conclude my role as the MAG."
Katz’s decision followed a development that shook the entire defense establishment on Wednesday, when Zamir suspended Tomer-Yerushalmi in light of a probe by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara into the leak of a video.
It is unclear why Tomer-Yerushalmi was only suspended now, when the Sde Teiman case broke into the headlines in July 2024. However, there were reports that her spokeswoman recently told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) about leaking the evidence in question and that Tomer-Yerushalmi had approved the leak.