Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday appointed IDF Col. Netanel Kula to replace Brig. Gen. Kobi Mandelblit as the next IDF chief censor.
Mandelblit entered office in June 2022 and has survived nearly three years of debates and tensions with the media and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially during the current war.
In November 2023, Haaretz reported that Mandelblit had told senior IDF officers that he was being pressured by Netanyahu to block reports without a national security justification and that Netanyahu wanted to remove him.
Mandelblit stated that the pressure was coming from Netanyahu, National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, and military secretary Avi Gil, two senior officials told the newspaper.
According to the report, the prime minister called the chief censor together with Hanegbi and Gil and requested that he make the regulations for disqualifying the publication of reports stricter. Mandelblit claimed that the requested changes did not have any security justification and that the pressure being placed on him to make the changes was "extraordinary."
Who is Col. Kula?
Kula was most recently the chief of intelligence for the IDF Central Command.
In addition, he has served in intelligence for around 25 years.
Kula also has a degree in law, and briefly worked in the IDF West Bank Prosecution.
In one hearing, Kula's keen intelligence skills led him to catch a prisoner trying to pass an operational message on a small piece of paper to his lawyer.
Kula will be promoted to brigadier general rank when he fully takes his new office in the upcoming months.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
