A legal storm blew up on Thursday over concerns raised by the Attorney General’s Office over a meeting held by incoming Mossad chief Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman and a current official in the Mossad which legal officials claimed was relevant to the High Court petitions against Gofman’s appointment.
The Attorney General’s Office filed a notice to the court Thursday morning informing it of two meetings Gofman held with officials in the Mossad after his appointment as the next head of the spy agency was approved, which the legal officials said Gofman should have told the court in the framework of the petitions against him.
The court quickly dismissed the attorney general’s concerns however, saying the meetings, and what was discussed in them, had no relevance or influence on the petitions before the court — or its decisions thus far in the legal proceedings.
After the court brushed aside the attorney general’s concerns, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, through his attorney, accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of stirring up an “uproar over nothing,” and alleged that she was trying to stymie the appointment on baseless grounds.
Netanyahu also demanded that the Attorney General’s Office be excluded from one of the legal processes the High Court ordered following a hearing on the petitions against Gofman on Tuesday.
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Gofman was appointed as the next head of the Mossad in April this year, but several petitions were filed against him, including one by a blogger whom Gofman had authorized to publish classified information in a social media influence campaign while he was serving as the commander of the IDF’s 210th Division.
The blogger, Ori Elmakayes who was 17 at the time, was subsequently arrested and indicted for espionage and was only exonerated 18 months later, during which time Gofman did not inform the Shin Bet or the prosecution services that Elmakayes had been cooperating with the IDF.
Ori Elmakayes poses for a portrait in the southern city of Ashkelon, April 15, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Gofman was investigated by the IDF and given a disciplinary note in his record over the incident, although due to the fact that he had denied knowledge of the influence operation and not for his failure to intervene for Elmkayes, or for the fact that Elmakayes had been a minor at the time.
The petitions against Gofman’s appointment as Mossad head charge that the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which approved his candidacy, failed to properly address Gofman’s role in this incident, particularly if he lied to the IDF’s investigation team.
Following a hearing on Tuesday, the High Court ordered a military intelligence officer who had knowledge of the Elmakayes affair, referred to as Gimmel, to file an affidavit to the court to clarify the facts of the incident.
Following the October 7, 2023, attacks, Gimmel moved to work in the Mossad. In the notice filed to the High Court on Thursday morning, the Attorney General’s Office noted that during preparatory meetings for taking up his new position, Gofman met with the head of the Mossad department, where Gimmel now serves, on April 15, and was told that the Mossad has decided to end Gimmel’s work with the agency.
Then on May 12, the day of the High Court hearing but before it took place, Gofman held further such meetings, and told Gimmel’s department head he would “consider the issue” of Gimmel’s departure from the agency.
The Attorney General’s Office appears to have been concerned that Gofman’s comments about Gimmel may have been designed to influence the outcome of the petitions against him, although the comments were made before the High Court issued its order for Gimmel to file an affidavit on the affair.
The High Court of Justice hears petitions against the appointment of Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the next head of the Mossad, May 12, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Harel Arnon, the attorney representing Netanyahu in the petition proceedings, described the information provided by the Attorney General’s Office as “worthless,” and accused Baharav-Miara of filing the request “to create an uproar over nothing,” and to defend her opposition to the appointment.
“A review of the letter reveals that it has one goal: to continue to cast aspersions on Maj. Gen. Gofman, and cause his appointment to be canceled.
“The apparent foot-dragging and delays by the attorney general in fulfilling her duty to submit Gimmel’s affidavit as soon as possible in order to try and cast aspersions, by implication, on Maj. Gen. Gofman is deplorable,” Netanyahu’s attorney wrote to the court.
He also requested that the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee take Gimmel’s affidavit and not the attorney general, who he said could record Gimmel’s account misleadingly.
Although the court dismissed the attorney general’s concerns, it did not agree to the request for the affidavit to be taken by the committee.
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