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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Ori Elmakayes, the individual at the center of the allegations against Gofman, said that he accepted the court\u2019s decision not to intervene, and that he believed Gofman would act with greater restraint as a result of the legal battle he waged against his appointment.<\/p>\n \t Gofman is set to take up the position of Mossad director on Tuesday at a swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s decision to select Gofman, who was his military secretary, as Mossad chief was beset by allegations of wrongdoing over an incident during his time as commander of the IDF\u2019s 210th \u201cBashan\u201d Regional Division in the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n In 2022, Gofman approved the use of Elmakayes, then 17, for an Arabic-language influence campaign against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Elmakayes was asked to publish information in his Telegram channel by his handler, referred to as Captain Tzur, since it was read by enemy elements inside Syria.<\/p>\n However, Elmakayes was arrested and interrogated by the Shin Bet, and, so he claims, tortured during the process. He was kept in solitary confinement for two months and under different forms of detention for some 18 months until the charges were eventually dropped, after his lawyers belatedly managed to prove that he had been working with the IDF.<\/p>\n An IDF investigation was conducted in May 2022 into the affair, in which Gofman said he had not known Elmakayes\u2019s identity or the specifics of the operation. The investigation resulted in Gofman receiving a disciplinary note in his record on the grounds that he had not received authorization for the operation through Elmakayes\u2019s Telegram channel.<\/p>\n Netanyahu nominated Gofman as the Mossad chief in December 2025, and the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee recommended that the cabinet approve his candidacy in April by three votes to one, with the committee\u2019s chairman, retired Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, dissenting.<\/p>\n A petition was filed against the appointment by Elmakayes himself on the grounds that Gofman had failed to alert the law enforcement agencies that he had been working in cooperation with the IDF, constituting a major ethical violation leading to Elmakayes\u2019 prolonged legal ordeal. The Movement for Quality Government also filed a petition accusing Gofman of lying to an IDF investigation over the matter, which it said was also a grave ethical violation.<\/p>\n The court then asked the advisory committee to review further testimony and evidence, which it did and once again voted three to one<\/a> to approve Gofman\u2019s appointment, with Grunis again dissenting.<\/p>\n \t Writing for the majority on Monday, Justice Ofer Grosskopf said that the questions of whether Gofman had lied and had \u201cabandoned\u201d Elmakyes were key to determining whether or not he had acted in violation of ethical codes of conduct in a way that invalidated him from serving as Mossad chief.<\/p>\n Citing a written summary of a May 2022 phone call between Gofman and an officer in the IDF\u2019s Information Security Department referred to as Gimmel, and an affidavit from Gimmel to the advisory committee, Grosskopf said that Gofman\u2019s answers to questions put to him by Gimmel had not been fitting, or even correct.<\/p>\n But he wrote that it was too great a leap to determine that Gofman had deliberately lied and misled the investigation, saying that the evidence did not support such a conclusion.<\/p>\n Although Gimmel asked whether Gofman knew broadly about the influence operation with Elmakayes, which Gofman certainly did know about, he nevertheless replied that he was unaware of it.<\/p>\n But Grosskopf asserted that the context of the investigation and the phone call was not Elmakayes\u2019s identity, but rather whether Gofman had authorized the transfer of classified information to the Telegram channel operator, which he had not.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not convinced that Maj. Gen. Gofman\u2019s answer was deliberately misleading, and it is certainly plausible in my opinion that it was given inadvertently, whether due to the way he understood the topic of the conversation or due to being distracted,\u201d wrote Grosskopf.<\/p>\n \t Gofman could therefore not be accused of a severe ethical violation over his answers to the IDF investigation, the justice determined.<\/p>\n Grosskopf also insisted that Gofman had not \u201cabandoned\u201d Elmakayes, because as soon as Elmakayes\u2019s handler from the 210th Division was questioned by IDF Information Security in August 2022, he told the head of the unit\u2019s investigations department that he had authorized the operation and Captain Tzur\u2019s contact with Elmakayes.<\/p>\n This occurred two and a half months after Elmakayes was arrested. Grosskopf wrote that between Elmakayes\u2019s arrest on May 24, 2022, and Captain Tzur\u2019s questioning, Gofman may have reasonably assumed that the investigation against Elmakayes was based on matters other than his connection to the 210th Division, since Gofman himself never authorized the transfer of classified information to Elmakayes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conclusion that emerges from this analysis is that the evidence before us does not provide support for the narrative of lies and abandonment Maj. Gen. Gofman is accused of by the petitioners, but rather aligns well with the narrative of moral integrity presented by him and adopted by the position of the majority members of the advisory committee and the prime minister,\u201d wrote Grosskopf.<\/p>\n Gofman will be replacing outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tOri Elmakayes leaves the Prime Minister\u2019s Office in Jerusalem after testifying before the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee regarding the appointment of Roman Gofman as Mossad director, May 21, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/F260512YS223-1-640x400.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe 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)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/F260524NRF12-640x400.jpg\")
\n\t\tJustice Ofer Grosskopf presides over a hearing in the High Court of Justice, May 24, 2026. (Noam Revkin Fenton\/ Flash90)<\/p>\n
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