Reservists on Duty
"Reservists on Duty" is an Israeli NGO established in December 2015 by Israeli reserve soldiers and officers. Its purpose is to act against the BDS boycott campaign, and sabotage the New Anti-Semitism it has caused in campuses all across the USA.
In Israel, the organization operates in order to expose the true intentions of organizations that attempt to assist the BDS campaign abroad, such as "Breaking the Silence" and "B'Tselem".
The organization is funded by donations from private people (Zionist Jews from USA and Israel) and the Central Fund of Israel.
Background[עריכה]
The organization was established in 2015 by Amit Deri, the former director of the premilitary collage Tavor in Nazrath-Ilit. The idea of establishing the organization has taken shape after Deri have witnessed a protest of the BDS movement in Ireland, where the spokesmen had established their arguments against Israel on materials from Israeli organizations, such as "Breaking the Silence". Deri felt that there is some distortion in the way the reality is presented in the international arena, and decided to operate towards changing the narrative by forming a forum of reserve soldiers, who are familiar with the reality and the field.
The organization was founded after dozens of IDF officers and warriors have decided to operate against the activity of "Breaking the Silence" and signed a petition. They demand that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will stop this organization's cooperation with the state institutions and IDF particularly. Moreover, they demanded he will prevent the funding "Breaking the Silence" gets from foreign countries. The petition received the support of over half the Knesset members.
Activity[עריכה]
The objective of the organization is to reveal the BDS supporters both in Israel and in campuses across the USA, to spread the truth about Israel with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and to make it more accessible to the public abroad. Moreover, the organization aspires to be a main source of information in this field, and thus it operates Project Gideon.
Project Gideon is the main project of the organization, where 50 volunteers – former lone soldiers – are being sent to campuses across the USA during the "Apartheid week", in order to fight the rising anti-Israeli propaganda and to promote the Israeli propaganda there. These volunteers work in the students cells, stay in touch with Jewish communities in their area, take care of constant supply of explanation materials and generally serve as pro-Israeli ambassadors.
The organization sees Pro-Israeli American Jews as an efficient and effective cause of influence in the front of the battle in the campuses. In their view, their advantage is understanding the unique challenges around the campuses on the one hand, and the life in Israel on the other. The organization harness them, train them for activist activity for 10 months, and then a delegation of volunteers goes to the campuses in order to interact with students and let them know how the Israeli part of the equation looks like.
In Israel, the organization's activity focuses on exposing allegedly-hidden intentions of Anti-Israeli organizations, such as "Breaking the Silence", "B'Tselem", etc. Among other things, the organization has established a hot line for IDF soldiers (past and present) that suffered from harassments from "Breaking the Silence" asking them (after operation "Tzuk Eitan") to give testimonies from the battles. The organization has also launched a wide campaign against "Haaretz" newspaper, claiming that BDS activists base themselves abundantly on their reports, also given in English. They claim that "Haaretz" stories promote demonization of Israel in general and the IDF particularly.
The organization hold conferences in Israel and the world with regards to ethics in combat and the double standards that, so they claim, exists in the world with regards to the state of Israel.
On April 2017, the "Reservists on Duty" made headlines after posting a response video to the testimony of Din Issacharoff, the spokesmen of "Breaking the Silence". In this testimony he claimed that during his service as a platoon commander he hit a Palestinian until he bled, in front of his entire platoon and his company commander. In the response video, posted by "Reservists on Duty", Issacharoff commander and a dozen of his platoon's soldiers stood in front of the camera, and told that his stories are false, and that the story has never taken place. This event has led the Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked, to ask the Government Legal Council, Avihay Mandelblit, to investigate Issaharof and prosecute him if his story is true. Issaharof was indeed investigated under warning.On April 2017, the "Reservists on Duty" made headlines after posting a response video to the testimony of Din Issacharoff, the spokesmen of "
Nowadays, the organization contains over 700 warriors and officers on reservs, among which are 150 Company and Battalion Commanders.
External Links[עריכה]
- "Reservists on Duty" Official website
- תבנית:Facebook
- "Reservists on Duty" on Youtube
- "Reservists on Duty" in Mako website
- "Reservists on Duty" in Channel 20 website
- "Reservists on Duty" in The Seventh Eye website
- "Reservists on Duty" in Haaretz website
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