Menachem Finkelstein

Menachem Finkelstein was born in 1951 in Tel Aviv

Finkelstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1951 and had an Orthodox Jewish upbringing. He attended religious state elementary school and the Ironi Bet high school in Tel Aviv.

He studied law at Tel Aviv University through the army's academic reserve program. He passed the bar exam in 1976 and later earned a doctorate in law at Bar-Ilan University, with parts of his thesis published as a book on conversion to Judaism.

Most of his army career was in the military advocate's office, where he was a prosecutor, a military judge, chief military prosecutor and chief military defender. As Military Advocate General during the Second Intifada, he presided over the ruling that targeted killings were legal. In 2003 he chose not to open a criminal investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, but opened one into the death of Tom Hurndall.

He retired from the army in 2004 and became a district court judge, later serving as deputy president of the Central District Court. He was also a law professor at the Peres Academic Center, chaired the inquiry into the 2021 Gilboa prison escape, and became ombudsman for complaints against state representatives in the courts.