JERUSALEM, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Israel's High Court of Justice on Monday approved the appointment of Roman Gofman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military secretary, as the next head of the Mossad intelligence agency for a five-year term.
The court rejected two petitions against the appointment. Gofman is set to take over from outgoing Mossad Director David Barnea on Tuesday.
The petitions centered on the "Elmakias affair," in which Israeli intelligence officers recruited Uri Elmakias, then a minor who operated social media news channels covering developments in Arab countries.
Elmakias was arrested in May 2022, at the age of 17, and charged with serious security offenses related to obtaining and publishing classified military information. The charges were later dropped after more than a year and a half of house arrest, when the state attorney's office accepted his innocence.
The petitions, filed by Elmakias and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, alleged that Gofman, who commanded one of the units involved, abandoned the minor after his recruitment and denied knowledge of the operation following his arrest.
On Thursday, Israel's attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara urged the court to overturn the appointment, citing alleged integrity concerns in the Elmakias affair.
A majority of the court ruled that the case did not reveal any integrity flaw that would disqualify Gofman, finding no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing or ethical breach. ■
