Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Two IDF Soldiers Dismissed For Posting Refusal to Evacuate Settlements on Facebook

The Israel Defense Forces dismissed two soldiers after discovering that they pledged on Facebook to refuse orders to evacuate West Bank settlements.

The incident comes days after the IDF evacuation of portions of three illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank.

The Facebook post that resulted in the soldiers’ dismisal was a photo of a piece of paper that said, in Hebrew, “A real border policeman doesn’t evacuate Jews!” The post reportedly went viral among soldiers, including those not serving in the West Bank.

The two soldiers in question were not posted in the West Bank at the time of the incident.

The protest comes two weeks after dozens of IDF soldiers posted anonymously on Facebook protesting the suspension of a soldier from the Nahal Brigade identified as David who had threatened a Palestinian youth with a rifle. Those posts featured IDF soldiers holding pieces of paper over their faces reading, “I am also with David from Nahal.”

“Facebook is not a command tool,” said IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, according to Haaretz. “It’s not an alternative or even a parallel channel for dialogue between commanders and their soldiers.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.