Kochavi relieves one officer of duty, censures four for role in soldier’s suicide

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi has relieved one officer of duty and formally censured four others for their role in the suicide of a soldier who was being recruited by Military Police as an informant.

The investigation into the January 2018 suicide of Givati soldier Cpl. Niv Lubaton took place over the course of several months, after Kochavi ordered a full investigation into his suicide and the methods used by the Military Police Investigatory Unit (Metzach) for recruiting informants.

The full investigation began the indictment of two former IDF military police officers last September, following an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. They were indicted in military court for failing to properly report Lubaton’s mental health, non-compliance and inappropriate conduct.

“This is an unbelievably painful and saddening incident and we must do everything to prevent such an event from recurring,” Kochavi said. “Intelligence gathering, interrogations and the like must be carried out with sensitivity and concern for the soldier. The Military Police Investigatory

Unit must learn lessons and implement them immediately.”

Following the investigation into Lubaton’s death, the then-commander of the Military Police Investigatory Unit’s Beersheba station was removed from the unit. The officer, who held the rank of major, will also not serve in positions of command and he will not be able to be promoted for six years in light of his command responsibility for the incident.

Four other officers, the commander of the Military Police Investigatory Unit’s southern division and Lubaton’s three direct commanders in his squad leaders’ course also received official reprimands for their failures during the searches for him after he went missing.

The military said that Kochavi also ordered a series of systematic measures for the Military Police Investigatory Unit as well as in the military, including reviewing and updating its methods of recruiting informants as well as formulating an updated procedure detailing the actions required by commanders in the case of a soldier missing from the unit including the required search operations.

According to IDF figures, the leading cause of fatalities in the military in 2019 was suicide, with 12 soldiers taking their own lives, including two lone soldiers.

Soldiers who commit suicide are officially defined as “suspected suicides” until the Military Police have finished investigating their cases. While 2019 saw an increase in suicides from the previous year’s nine suicides, the number in the military has been decreasing from its peak in 2005 when 36 soldiers took their lives.

Of the 43 IDF soldiers who died in 2018, eight are suspected of committing suicide; two years earlier, of the 41 soldiers who died in 2016, 15 soldiers are suspected of committing suicide.

The general downward trend in suicide in the IDF has been credited to restricted access to weapons on the one hand, and the army’s efforts in suicide prevention on the other. The army launched an extensive plan to prevent suicide in 2006, with numerous programs designed to better train commanders to identify soldiers who may have suicidal thoughts, and streamlining army procedures to ensure all relevant information is received by mental health officers as soldiers move between units.