Major General (Res.) Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, 61 — who served as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, head of the Civil Administration, and former IDF spokesperson — has been questioned as a suspect in the Qatargate affair on charges of bribery and contact with a foreign agent. Calcalist revealed Sunday morning that Mordechai allegedly brokered extensive Israeli defense and cyber-security deals with Qatar, receiving millions of shekels in brokerage fees.
For example, Calcalist reported that M.B.G.I. Ltd. — jointly controlled by Mordechai via a private company he owns called Abu Dana and by another individual — has been entitled since 2018 to receive at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in brokerage commissions from Elbit Systems defense equipment sales to the Qatari royal family. These systems are radar-like installations mounted on aircraft that detect incoming fire.
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Major General (Res.) Yoav (Poli) Mordechai is a suspect in the Qatargate affair
(Photo: Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories)
Another deal involved the Qatar purchase via Mordechai’s mediation of software from Israeli cyber company Verint (VERINT), traded on NASDAQ. Verint offers a range of software solutions, including a security division; it is unclear which specific software product was sold via Mordechai’s mediation. His brokerage fees in these Elbit-Verint deals amounted to a few percent of the undisclosed total deal value.
However, one can estimate the scale of Mordechai and his partner’s activity based on an October 2024 transaction: they bought 50% of the company’s activity from other stakeholders in the Tahal Group (three controlling owners) for approximately 10 million shekels, implying a total valuation of roughly 20 million shekels for the defense-related business.
Calcalist also reported that Mordechai had previously attempted to facilitate a defense deal on behalf of drone company Aeronautics. In December 2018, Aeronautics applied to the Defense Ministry to register Mordechai as their consultant in the security export registry. As far as is known, Mordechai failed to advance foreign deals for Aeronautics, so he was not entitled to brokerage fees. In 2019, Aeronautics requested removal of Mordechai from their registered consultant list.
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Sources familiar with the matter stated that the defense brokerage deals involving Qatar were examined and pre-approved by the Defense Ministry’s Security Export Control Department. Considerations behind approval — despite Israel having no formal diplomatic relations with Qatar — included broader foreign policy and security interests.
Recent reports in Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth point out that former Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz, who sought in December 2023 to shorten his cooling-off period before joining Mordechai’s firm, stated in court that Mordechai’s team signed conflict-of-interest arrangements with the Foreign Ministry in November 2022 regarding requests tied to Israelis traveling to the World Cup in Qatar. Ushpiz further noted that senior officials at Novard (a company in which Mordechai was a partner) provided discreet assistance to the Foreign Ministry in two different contexts. He did not specify these contexts or whether they related to Qatar.
Mordechai and his partner also tried to promote consultancy services to investigative authorities worldwide — including Gulf states — to improve polygraph testing. They contracted a former Shin Bet official with extensive experience, offering training on detecting polygraph deception. As far as is known, they were unsuccessful in closing such deals.
Aeronautics said in a statement that: “There is no business relationship between Aeronautics and Mr. Mordechai; he has never represented the company.” Novard’s representative, attorney Gad Zilbershlag, commented: “Without addressing every detail mentioned here, some of which are inaccurate, the article shows that Novard operates transparently, reports its activity as required, strictly abides by the law, and promotes numerous Israeli company projects globally. The company and its management are proud of these projects and will continue operating to the same high standards.”