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IDF FILM MADE TO MOTIVATE THE TROOPS DISTORTS RIGHT WING

A documentary made by the IDF Education Department to motivate soldiers into expelling Jews from their homes and communities in Gush Katif, presents an inaccurate view of the right wing in Israel.
The film, entitled “Democracy and Me,” reviews the controversy that raged in Israel over the Oslo agreements in the mid 1990’s, showing right wing protests against the policies of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was gunned down by an assassin in 1995.

The film depicts a photo-montage of Rabin in a German SS uniform that appeared at one of the many anti-Oslo demonstrations that took place at the time. The film fails to mention, however, that photo-montage was produced by a Shabak (Secret Service) agent, Avishai Raviv, whose job was to deliberately incite the crowd against the government, using whatever means available.

The film also misrepresents the history of Israel’s 1948 Independence War. The movie says that there were “exchanges of fire” between the Hagana (the forerunner of the IDF) and the men on weapon’s ship Altalena, who belonged to Israel’s pre-Independence right wing underground.

In fact, the men on the ship, including Menachem Begin, head of the Etzel underground movement (later to become Prime Minister of Israel in the late 1970’s) did not fire back on the Hagana soldiers. A number of Etzel members were killed in that attack which was commanded by Yitzhak Rabin.

Responding to criticism of the documentary by Israel National News, the IDF spokesman said the film was made in accordance with IDF ethical standards and criteria. The spokesman said that depicting the anti-Rabin posters made by Shabak agent Raviv did not violate those standards.