The new chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Ze'ev Elkin, took an unusual step yesterday when he suspended MK Amar Bar-Lev from participating in meetings of the security subcommittees that conduct closed-door discussions until the end of the summer session.
Elkin took the step after Defense Minister Moshe (Bogi) Ya'alon complained that Bar-Lev had given one of the media outlets information that was presented to members of the Defense Budget Committee's subcommittee. Elkin informed Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz of his decision, and intends to report on it today to the committee's plenary session in its meeting with the Chief of Staff.
Bar-Lev responded to his suspension this morning (Tuesday) in an interview with Galei Tzahal: "There was a regulation that I was not aware of, I did not know that it was forbidden to leak data from this committee. I made an inadvertent mistake, and therefore I agreed with the committee chairman not to participate in several meetings of the subcommittees.".
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Bar-Lev also said: "I decided this on my own, Elkin has no authority to suspend me from my position, especially since I did not leak any confidential material from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's deliberations, but rather I alerted the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Finance Committee to the conflicting reports of senior IDF officers. Due to a technical error I made, I will not participate in the Security Subcommittee meetings until the end of the session, but I will continue in my position as chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee.".
Bar Lev was suspected last week of leaking security information from a closed committee discussion that took place about six months ago. This followed an announcement by journalist Amnon Abramovich on Channel 2 this week, according to which the IDF requested a budget increase contrary to a previous statement.
