In a shocking incident, Channel 12 News published a tampered video of footage from security cameras at Sde Teiman and claimed that the video was evidence of the reservists’ alleged crime in the now infamous “Sde Teiman case” in which 10 reservists were arrested by masked police officers.

Five of the reservists have since been released for lack of any evidence tying them to the alleged crime. Additionally, Kan News reported on Thursday morning that medical reports and examinations and tests carried out by the head of the surgical department of Hadassah Hospital prove that the allegations against the reservists are false.

Apart from the fact that the channel leaked investigative material to the public, it published an edited video that spliced footage from two different days as is evident from the dates that appear on it. Most importantly, the video showed no evidence of a crime despite the fact that the narrator of the video falsely states: “The footage shows documentation of the offense attributed to the reservists.”

But that didn’t stop the video from being picked up by Israel’s enemies and broadcast to the world with the claim: “Here’s proof that IDF soldiers rape Palestinians.”

As seen below, just one re-tweet received 7.5 million views as of Wednesday. Jackson Hinkle as well as pro-Iranian Telegram accounts also retweeted it and got millions of views.

The publication of the video, which was not even shared with the reservists’ defense lawyers, caused a huge storm and many claimed that “those who leaked the video to Channel 12 are either from the Military-Advocate General’s office or the IDF.”

A political official told Channel 14 News: “Whoever leaked the engineered video from Sde Teiman against IDF soldiers committed an attack against the State of Israel during a war. All the biggest Israel haters and antisemites in the world are echoing the fabricated video, which has become the biggest blood plot since the Muhammad al-Durrah plot. The damage caused on the political level is enormous and it affects the course of the war and may cause harm to the hostages in Gaza as revenge. A criminal investigation for treason must be brought against whoever leaked it.”

The headquarters of the Guarding the Soldiers organization submitted a complaint against the journalist, stating: “Publishing such a video in a distorted manner while a show trial for the soldiers is being carried out is an indescribable disgrace.”

Politicians are demanding the opening of a criminal  investigation into the leak: Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich called on the Attorney-General to intervene: “The Attorney-General would do well if, instead of acting with all her might to thwart the policy of the elected government on every issue, she begins to fulfill her role and impose order in the law enforcement system that is under her responsibility and has gone bankrupt and lost all compass and conscience.”

“First, an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them.”

It should be noted that Smotrich was the one who first revealed that investigators from the Military Advocate General’s office called terrorists who had been arrested and released into Gaza to gather testimony against IDF soldiers!

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli and Chairman of the Constitution Committee MK Simcha Rothman sent an urgent letter to Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in which they demanded a Knesset meeting on the case as well as on the overall conduct of the Military Advocate General’s office regarding the investigation of reservists amid a war.

“It seems that at times, haste, over-eagerness to bring about a conviction, and unprofessional considerations such as public relations influenced the decision-making process of the Military Advocate General’s office,” the letter stated. “All of this was carried out without taking into account the seriousness of the consequences that may arise as a result of this conduct for the State of Israel, the IDF, and its soldiers.”

“The day after the leak of the video, a series of journalists, network influencers, and hostile media outlets published it. As a result, serious damage was caused to the IDF and the State of Israel. Beyond the legal offense of leaking investigative materials, leaking documentation from a sensitive military facility during wartime constitutes an unprecedented serious criminal and security offense.”

“The conduct of the Military Advocate General and her subordinates in the Sde Teman case led to enormous damage to the State of Israel and the IDF, and this without any need for an investigation. The investigations, which were supposedly intended to protect Israel and the IDF soldiers from international criticism, became fuel in the engines of the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli propaganda, and caused a real risk to the IDF soldiers while undermining the presumption of innocence and purity of the legal process.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)