The License to Kill

Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit is considered Israel’s leading expert on the laws of warfare. Mandelblit was appointed as attorney general in 2016 after a long career in the Military Advocate General Corps, part of which he served in Gaza.

AS far back as the pre-Oslo era in the 1980s, when Israel fully controlled Gaza, he served as the military prosecutor for the Southern Command. Later, in the ’90s, he served as a judge on the military court of the Gaza region.

Mandelblit climbed every rung on the career ladder in the IDF legal hierarchy. Over his 20 years of service, he filled the roles of deputy chief military prosecutor, deputy president of the military court of the Southern Command and the ground forces, head of the chief military defense, and, finally, military advocate general.

Officials in the Justice Ministry (which opened a special operations room a day after Simchas Torah to provide a legal umbrella to war operations) testify that Mandelblit is the go-to expert for his successor as attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, on complex legal issues related to the war. In an extensive conversation with Mishpacha, Mandelblit sheds new light on Israel’s warfare legal strategy, which is a battle front of its own.

“One incident has been etched into my heart for 33 years,” Mandelblit says. “I was a judge in Gaza from 1989 to 1990, during which time I handled hundreds of murder cases. One case I remember in particular is the horrific lynching of Sargeant Amnon Pomerantz Hy”d in central Gaza. One of the rioters brought before the court was a 15-year-old boy who ‘explained’ his motives as follows: ‘The soldier I murdered wasn’t a human being. Everyone knows that the Jews are descended from monkeys and pigs, they’re sons of the devil. So I didn’t murder a person, because Jews are not people.’ ”