High Court of Justice 23426-04-26 Uri Elmakis v. Prime Minister - part 2

12-34-56-78 Chekhov v.  State of Israel, P.D.  51 (2)

So far in a nutshell - And from here in detail.  I would like to apologize for the lengthy remarks, and I will explain this in the short timetable available to us.  I will hang on tall trees, and quote the judge's apology Aharon Barak In one of the parashot that came before him:I regret the excessive length of the judgment, but I did not have enough time to write a shorter judgment" (High Court of Justice 428/86 Barzilai v.  Minister of JusticeIsrSC 40(3) 505, 586 (1986)).

Background and the sequence of events

1. Towards the end of the five-year term of the outgoing head of the Mossad for Intelligence and Special Duties, David (Dedi) Barnea (hereinafter: the outgoing head of the Mossad), the Prime Minister began the process of locating his replacement.
2. As a result, on December 4, 2025, the Prime Minister contacted the Advisory Committee for Appointments to Senior Positions (hereinafter: the Advisory Committee or the Committee) with a request to examine the candidacy of Maj.   Goffman, who has served as his military secretary since 2024, for the position of head of the Mossad, as required by Government Resolution No. 3839 "The Advisory Committee for Appointments to Senior Positions and the Cancellation of Government Decisions" of May 27, 2018 (hereinafter: Resolution 3839).  This government decision instructs that appointments to seven senior positions, including the head of the Mossad, will be made after a preliminary examination by the advisory committee, which will give its opinion regarding the appointment in terms of integrity.
3. Subsequently, on December 10, 2025, the Advisory Committee published a notice to the public regarding the Prime Minister's application to examine the candidacy of Maj.   Goffman, in which it noted that any person who has facts that may assist in the examination of the Advisory Committee may contact it in accordance with the timetable defined in the notice.
4. After the publication of the aforementioned notice, various parties contacted the Advisory Committee, including Mr. Uri Elmakais (he is the 1st petitioner in the High Court of Justice case 23426-04-26. Hereinafter: Elmakais and the Elmakais petition, respectively), the Movement for Moral Integrity (she is the second petitioner in the Elmakais petition) and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (she is the 1st petitioner in the High Court of Justice case 39686-04-26.  hereinafter: the Movement's petition), which sought to appeal the appointment.
5. The advisory committee, unanimously, did not really consider most of the objections raised before it regarding the appointment of Maj.   Goffman.  The exception to this, and the only issue in which the advisory committee found to expand and deepen, is Maj.  Gen.  Goffman's role in the Elmakais affair.  Since this affair is also the focus of the petitions before us, I will take a break at this stage to describe the history of the committee's work, and describe the Almakais affair and the role that Maj.  Gen.  Goffman played in its framework.

The Elmakis Affair

6. Elmakais, who was a minor at the relevant time (born in 2004), operated a channel on the digital platform "Telegram" under the name "Telegram News World" (hereinafter: the channel, the Telegram channel or the news world). As part of the channel, Mr. Almakais published security information that he collected and exposed from various sources regarding the activities of the Israeli security agencies, on the one hand, and the activities of terrorist organizations and enemy countries, on the other.
7. At some point that was not clarified by the parties, Brigadier General Goffman (as he was in rank at the time, and accordingly, as he will be referred to throughout this chapter), as commander of the 210th Division, instructed Major Tzur, an intelligence officer in the 210th Division (hereinafter: Major Tzur), to contact elements operating on social networks and dealing with Syria, both for intelligence gathering purposes and for influencing purposes, in light of his dissatisfaction with the response given to him in these matters by the IDF's responsible officials. As a result, at the beginning of 2022, a connection was made between Major Tzur and Mr. Almakayes.  According to his version, Major Tzur informed Brigadier General Goffman, as well as his direct commanders - the intelligence officer and information security officer of the 210th Division - about the contact with Mr. Almakais (although it was not clear what details Major Tzur gave to his superiors in relation to this contact).  It should also be noted that on January 29, 2022, Major Tzur received an order from the Northern Command intelligence officer to sever contact with Mr. Almakais, but a short time later this order was canceled and the contact was renewed.  Subsequently, for several months, Major Tzur handed over materials to Mr. Almakais for publication.  It should be clarified that there is no dispute that Major Tzur's very contact with civilian elements operating on social networks was carried out with the knowledge and approval of Brig.    Goffman, but not through and without the authorized intelligence bodies.
8. On April 10, 2022, the ISA (hereinafter: the ISA) received information regarding various information that was distributed on Telegram, which included classified and sensitive information. As a result, a security investigation was opened into the leak of security information, followed by a joint criminal investigation by the ISA, the Military Investigative Police, and the Israel Police (hereinafter: the Security and Criminal Investigation).  During this investigation, it became clear that Mr. Almakais had ties to various elements in the IDF, including a number of elements in the IDF's Intelligence Directorate (hereinafter: the Intelligence Directorate); Major Tzur as well as a counter from Central Command Intelligence (hereinafter: the counter from Central Command).  The details of the security and criminal investigation are still classified for information security reasons, but it is important to clarify, as will be detailed below, that it focused almost entirely on a leak of information attributed to the Intelligence Directorate (hereinafter: the information leak), which does not relate at all to Division 210.  As a result, as part of the security and criminal investigation, Major Tzur was not interrogated at all, despite the fact that the materials indicate that the investigators knew about the connection between him and Mr. Almakais.
9. During the initial stages of the security and criminal investigation, the Shin Bet conducted an initial examination with the military officials involved in order to ascertain whether the release of information was not done with authority and permission. Meanwhile, in early May 2022, an investigation was conducted, inter alia, with the Information Security Officer of the Northern Command, in which it was stated that the Northern Command (under which the 210th Division operates) does not use Israeli civilians for influence operations, and that there is no axis of information leakage.
10. As part of the aforementioned investigation, on May 15, 2022, the head of the Operational Operations Division, Brig.   G.  (hereinafter: the Operations Brigade Commander), under the direction of the Head of the Intelligence Directorate, contacted Brig.  Gen.  Goffman in order to rule, if possible, "the possibility that those involved in the affair acted in light of the instructions of their commanders as part of an attempt to carry out influence operations by means of exposure." In the framework of that telephone conversation, the main points of which were documented in real time by the assistant commander of the Operations Brigade in a document defined as "Memorandum of Understanding" (hereinafter: the examination call and the memorandum of understanding, respectively), the Operations Commander noted to Brig.  Gen.  Goffman that a sensitive investigation was being conducted regarding the transfer of intelligence materials to the Telegram channel in the field of security current affairs, and that there was a possibility that a certain branch of this affair related to the 210th Division.  Subsequently, the head of the Operation Brigade asks whether Brigadier General Goffman is aware of any connection, directly or indirectly, to the current affairs-security channel on Telegram, and the latter replies in the negative.  The Chief of Staff goes on to ask whether the name "News World" is familiar to Brigadier General Goffman, to which the latter also answers in the negative.  The Operations Brigade Commander also asks whether, to the extent that such contact existed, without Brig.  Gen.  Goffman's knowledge, which of his commanders would have known about it, to which he replies that the division's sphere of influence is led by the division's information security officer and the division's UN liaison officer, with their actions being carried out on the basis of open materials or intelligence from open sources.  Brig.  Gen.  Goffman added that any use of intelligence material is personally approved by him, and that with an almost absolute level of certainty, no such contact will be made without his knowledge.  Finally, Brig.  Gen.  Goffman notes that he would be happy to check the matter with his people in order to give an accurate answer, but the Operations Brigade Chief emphasizes to him that one should not talk to anyone in order not to harm the ongoing investigation.
11. Shortly after the examination call, on May 21, 2022, the head of the IDF's Information Security Directorate (hereinafter: the head of the Information Security Directorate and the head of the Information Security Directorate, respectively) issued a document stating that "no evidence was found before her - to the Telegram/Twitter channels relevant to the investigation or to the specific individuals suspected of leaking the information as part of influence or fraud efforts" (emphases in original).
12. On May 24, 2022, Mr. Almakais was arrested and held behind bars until July 6, 2022, when he was released to an alternative to detention. On June 13, 2022, an indictment was filed against Mr. Almakais attributing to him serious offenses of obtaining, collecting, preparing and holding secret information and providing confidential information under sections 113(c) and 113A of the Penal Law, 5737-1977 (Serious Crimes Case 24988-06-22).  hereinafter: the indictment).  To this day, the indictment is classified as "top secret" for information security reasons.  It should be noted, however, that the indictment deals entirely with the leak of information from the Intelligence Directorate, and does not relate to Mr. Almakais's activity vis-à-vis Major Tzur, including the information that reached Mr. Almakais from the 210th Division.
13. Almakais remained in detention under electronic supervision and house arrest under conditions for about a year, after which he was subjected to various restrictions for several more months. On December 14, 2023, the state announced, even before a response to the indictment was filed, that it was withdrawing the indictment, and on December 17, 2023, the Beersheba Juvenile Court ordered the cancellation of the indictment.  The reasons for the cancellation of the indictment against Mr. Almakais were not fully clarified in the proceedings at hand, as were the reasons for the prolongation of the proceedings in his case (about a year and a half).  In any event, it should be understood that on these matters, which, as will be clarified, have nothing to do with the question of the appointment of Major General Goffman, I do not express any position.
14. To complete the picture, it should be noted that as a result of the security and criminal investigation, two indictments were also filed against officials of the Intelligence Directorate for leaking information to Mr. Almakais and other acts. These criminal proceedings, which are also classified, have ended, according to the information before us, with convictions and punishment as part of plea bargains.
15. We will be back a little later in time. Following the security and criminal investigation, and a few weeks after the indictment was filed, the IBM conducted a military investigation to clarify the ties that existed between IDF officials and Mr. Almakais (hereinafter: the MIBAM interrogation).  On August 10, 2022, Major Tzur was interrogated as part of this investigation.  To the best of my knowledge, this is the first interrogation in which Major Tzur, or any other party connected to the 210th Division, has been interrogated by any party in connection with the Almakais affair, despite the fact that, as has already been emphasized, Major Tzur's connections with Mr. Almakais were well known to the parties who carried out the security and criminal investigations.

A few hours after the conclusion of Major Tzur's interrogation, Brig.  Gen.  Goffman called the head of the Investigations Department at the IUCN to clarify that he had authorized Major Tzur to contact bloggers dealing with Syria in order to gather information, as well as for the purposes of influence.  In doing so, Brig.  Gen.  Goffman assumed full responsibility for the 210th Division's role in the Almakais affair immediately after he was first interrogated in connection with it by the party who was directly involved in it on behalf of the division.

16. The report summarizing the CBAV investigation was submitted by the head of the CBAV on August 15, 2022, and is also classified as "top secret" (hereinafter: summary of Maj. Tzur's interrogation at the ICBM).  It should be noted, however, that this report indicates that Mr. Almakais received classified materials from various elements in the army (in the regular army and in the reserves), including Major Tzur, and that it was manipulated by some of them.  The result of this investigation was, inter alia, the taking of command measures against Major Tzur and the counter from the Central Command, as well as the giving of a command note to Brigadier General Goffman by the commander of the Northern Command at the time, Maj.    Amir Baram (in retrospect it turned out that this note was not recorded in his personal file, possibly due to a mistake.  See: Transcript of Maj.  Gen.  (res.) Baram's announcement to the committee dated March 22, 2026, on p.  4 (hereinafter: the statement of the commander of the Commander of the Commander of the Committee)).
17. Since the Almakais affair is at the heart of the petitions before us, it is important to emphasize at this stage a number of critical points for the continuation of the discussion regarding the share of the 210th Division, and Brigadier General Goffman, who headed it, in this affair:

First, the subject of the security and criminal investigation in the Almakais affair was, from beginning to end, the leak of information, i.e., the classified information that was transferred to Mr. Almakais, first and foremost, by Intelligence Directorate officials.  For reasons of information security, I cannot comment on the nature of the information leak, and I will suffice with clarifying that it has nothing to do with the 210th Division, and the arena in which it operates.