IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir’s battle to preserve the financial benefits of ousted Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi has drawn media attention to the special treatment she is receiving, including the recruitment of top attorneys to defend her—at the public’s expense, Arutz Sheva reported.

The Im Tirtzu movement is preparing to file a petition demanding details about the cost of the legal defense being provided to Tomer-Yerushalmi. Alon Schwartzer, the movement’s head of research and policy, discussed the matter in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

Schwartzer described the efforts to obtain information that began as early as November 2025.

“After the affair exploded and we saw the legal representation she was receiving, we wanted to know who was funding it, who approved the funding, and what the procedure is for selecting defense counsel. We requested answers from the IDF under the Freedom of Information Law. We see that she is being represented by senior attorneys, and we wanted to know whether every soldier facing legal proceedings is entitled to choose his own attorney, what the process is, the names of the attorneys, whether this is at the expense of reserve-duty days, whether they are receiving outside funding and what their agreement with the IDF is.”

Schwartzer added that the request also sought details of the documents that led to approval of the arrangement allowing Tomer-Yerushalmi to receive such high-level legal representation.

“We requested copies of the agreements and the amounts involved, and also information about all the soldiers who were investigated and indicted—what legal representation they received and how much it cost us as taxpayers.”

According to Schwartzer, that request for information produced no results. The Military Advocate General’s Corps requested an extension and received one.

“They again failed to respond, and we sent a reminder and then another reminder. In June, we got tired of sending reminders and filed a complaint with the Freedom of Information Unit at the Justice Ministry. They asked us for all the material and determined that we were correct in our claim, and they too requested a response from the IDF. But the IDF did not respond or address the matter even when approached by the Justice Ministry.”

In light of the IDF’s conduct, the Justice Ministry’s Freedom of Information Unit determined that the relevant military officials who failed to answer the questions had acted in violation of the Freedom of Information Law and that the violation had not been corrected.

“In effect, they are breaking the law, but all that can be done is to publish the IDF’s name as a ‘violating authority,’ meaning an authority that violated the law. In our view, that is not enough,” Schwartzer asserted.

“We saw the recent reports about the money Tomer-Yerushalim is receiving from the IDF, unrelated to her legal representation. We saw [Kan News journalist] Ayala Hasson say that she did not receive information from the Military Advocate General’s Corps regarding the representation. Our position, therefore, is that we are entitled to petition the Administrative Court and ask it to compel the IDF to provide us with an answer.

“This is information the public has a right to receive. It is not classified information or information that would harm national security. It is information that should have been transparent.”

“It is important that the public have access to this information because this involves someone who violated and acted contrary to the law, and it is inconceivable that the IDF should fund her legal defense—certainly if she is receiving representation from some of the finest attorneys in Israel, something that is not provided to every soldier involved in legal proceedings. The public has a right to receive this information.”

Schwartzer clarified that if efforts to stonewall the demand continue and the information is not provided as required by law, there will also be an appeal to the High Court of Justice.

“The public is entitled to receive this information. We are talking about an IDF major general who committed an act that should never have been done and caused harm not only to Force 100 but to national security,” he said.

Schwartzer added that in light of reports that Zamir has already transferred 90% of the funds to Tomer-Yerushalmi that had been withheld from her, it is entirely possible that she could ultimately be required to return substantial sums in order to fund her own legal representation.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)