Major General (res.) Orna Barbibai demanded an officer who served under her reveal her pay slip to officers and other third parties to prove that career soldiers do not receive excessive benefits.
Shaul Amsterdamsky, a journalist for the Kann broadcasting corporation, spoke of the incident on the occasion of Barbibai's joining the Yesh Atid party.
"While Lapid was Finance Minister and Barbibai was the head of the Personnel Directorate, I published something about the benefits that permanent staff receive as part of their service, a long list of benefits, including free dental alignment for their children. I don't remember exactly why, following the article (I believe) the IDF Spokesman arranged a meeting with the head of the Personnel Directorate, Orna Barbibai. I went happily. I'd never met her before," wrote Amsterdamsky in his Twitter account.
He described the meeting with Barbibai as unpleasant. "She mostly scolded me during her reprimand, but it's okay, senior officers have done that before her and after her; that's not the point.
"During the meeting, when we began to talk about salaries of career soldiers, she vehemently claimed that all the numbers I published were made up (even though they appeared as written in the Israeli government budget book), and then something happened I'll never forget. In order to show me my mistake, Barbibai summoned her infantry officer, an officer with the rank of captain.
"The embarrassed captain enters the office, where I'm sitting in Barbibai, me, the representatives of a police office, and another officer of the rank of lieutenant colonel or colonel whose name I don't remember." Barbibai, without blinking, said to her: "Go get your pay slip. The officer was very surprised and embarrassed, and I said I didn't have to see it, and I asked that we not do this thing, but Barbibai insisted. Having no choice, an order is still an order, and from a brigadier general yet; the infantry officer went out and returned a few minutes later with her pay slip, so that I'd look at it in front of everyone," the journalist said.
"I thought this was an extremely humiliating experience and I didn't understand why someone would do it to someone else. I have more to say about Barbibai, but I think it's enough."
Yesh Atid party responds: "Thousands of officers, including the female officer in question, are excited today that their commander, who is a role model, has entered politics today. And if the facts are important - then the presentation of the pay slip was planned and at the request of the officer to prove the gap between the investment and hard work and the salary of IDF officers."