Israel's State Comptroller's Final Report on Harpaz Affair to Be Released Sunday

The State Comptroller's report on the Harpaz affair will be released on Sunday, two and a half years after what has come to be called the "Harpaz document" was exposed on Channel 2 News and shook the upper echelons of the Israeli defense establishment. The document contained a detailed plan to promote the appointment of Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.

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A police investigation into the source of the document found that the document was forged by Lt. Col. (res.) Boaz Harpaz, a reservist and associate of then IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi - the officer Galant was expected to replace. This revelation prompted then State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss to open an investigation in October 2010.

Though the report was mostly written by Lindenstrauss, it will be presented by his successor, Joseph Shapira. The report is based on hours of recorded interviews with IDF officers, government officials, journalists and other persons related to the affair, in addition to thousands of pages of documents.

According to past drafts of the report, Ashkenazi's assistant, Col. Erez Weiner, pushed Harpaz to collect incriminating information about Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Galant and others - and that Ashkenazi had at least some knowledge of this. Ashkenazi and Weiner deny the accusations. If there are no surprises, the report is expected to find that Ashkenazi and his associates conspired to thwart Galant's appointment as chief of staff and took every effort to cover this up.