The Military Prosecutor is expected to announce the case against Brigadier-General Mordechai Kahane is being closed. Kahane was found to be in possession of non-functioning military equipment, in a container he was storing. This refers to criminal charges against him. He is however likely to face disciplinary charges.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott decided to suspend Kahane for two weeks when the case broke.

Kahane, a decorated officer who previously commanded the Sayeret Golani during Operation Defensive Shield and the elite Egoz unit during the Second Lebanon War, is suspected of holding “military” equipment in an “exceptional” quantity alongside civilian equipment, including a washing machine. He was recently appointed head of the team of experts who was charged with examining the Ramat Gan accident last month, in which two IDF soldiers were killed. He was wounded during his service, and was also wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem many years ago. He attended a hesder yeshiva and he is the son of HaGaon Rav Nachman Kahane, who has a shul in the so-called Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. He is also a nephew of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D.

Chief Military Advocate General, Colonel Ran Cohen, and Deputy Ariel Hebron, representing Kahane, said: “Brigadier-General Mordechai Kahane has served in the IDF for 28 years, most of them as a combat soldier and commander on the battlefield in all the systems since Operation Defensive Shield. In his case, he cooperated fully with the interrogators and answered all the questions that were presented to him.”

It is also added, “Kahane believes that the investigation must be fully exhausted and that the enforcement authorities in the IDF be allowed to take their decisions on the matter and therefore accepts the decision of the ground forces commander to suspend him for a short period of time. From our information, the suspicions attributed to Brigadier-General Kahane have no criminal aspects, and therefore it is appropriate to finish the investigation as soon as possible and disperse the heavy cloud over his head.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: IDF Spokesman Unit)