Harpaz named as lone 'Galant Document' forger

Police put end to investigation, slam media for reporting ‘pure rumor and gossip.’

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Harpaz 311 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Harpaz 311
(photo credit: Channel 10)
Lt.-Col. (res.) Boaz Harpaz forged the “Galant Document” on his own, police said on Wednesday, in an announcement which marked the end of an investigation that has rocked the senior echelon of the defense establishment.
Harpaz was released to ten days’ house arrest on Wednesday, and police said they would pass on their findings to state prosecutors in the coming days.
“There is no evidence to support the idea that employees of the defense minister or IDF chief of staff were involved in preparing the document,” police said.
“We have exposed the chain through which the document passed until it was publicized on Channel 2,” police added.
Police criticized the press coverage of its investigation, adding that many of the reports were based on “pure rumor and gossip,” and were influenced by “manipulations and baseless estimations, which were often contradictory.”
Police said it had nothing to do with the array of false reports that appeared in some of the media in recent weeks, adding that it made sure not to “be dragged into the waves of rumors.”
In another appalled comment on the media, police said that it had issued some clarifications following false media reports, adding that the clarifications “were not reported on at all.”
Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen of the National Serious and International Crime Unit of the Lahav 443 police branch, which led the investigation, said, “we have reached the truth... The main aim of this investigation has been achieved. The best of our investigators aimed for this goal, and were supplied with the best equipment and tools. They ran a professional, discreet, and speedy investigation.”
Last week, Harpaz retracted a confession made over the weekend that he fabricated the paper, his lawyers said on Sunday at the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court.
In recent days, Harpaz’s growing number of contradictory police testimonies fueled speculation that he could be covering up for other IDF officers who may have forged the document – speculation that had no evidence, according to Wednesday’s police announcement.