Anti-IDF activity sponsored by Justice Ministry

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One of the bodies which should be curbing this offensive is the Justice Ministry, whose job is to provide legal backing to the government's policy and to the IDF. But while the government ministries are engaged in rearguard battles in the international battlefield, the Justice Ministry has adopted a policy which encourages Israeli groups to continue their incitement against the IDF.

Several days ago, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein sent a written opinion to the National Service Administration, in which he rejected the decision to remove the Breaking the Silence organization from the National Service volunteer program.

Breaking the Silence says it has taken it upon itself to "expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the occupied territories and stimulate a public debate," although the public debate the organization is trying to stimulate is not a debate which respects Israeli democracy, but a route bypassing the Israeli public opinion.

Through extensive activity abroad, on university campuses and in international institutions, Breaking the Silence has turned into the most effective machine for slandering the IDF.

The decision to remove the organization from the National Service volunteer program should have been obvious, as National Service volunteers are entitled by law to the same conditions as IDF soldiers. One cannot volunteer in an organization which slanders the IDF and also receive a generous release grant from the Defense Ministry.

Breaking the Silence activists. 'How is an organization whose sole purpose is to smear the IDF included on the National Service volunteer program?' (Photo: Roi Mandel)

Weinstein based his opinion on the extended policy of the National Service Administration, which includes in its volunteer program organizations with controversial agendas, such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights. These organizations also engage in legal warfare against the IDF, and the state should consider whether it wants to support their activity, but Breaking the Silence is an organization whose sole purpose is to smear the IDF.

We didn’t ask the attorney general to outlaw this organization – in the name of freedom of expression, which is important to all of us, we will allow Breaking the Silence to continue slandering the IDF. But please, not at the expense of the public coffers.

In the same spirit, we were informed of another of the attorney general's decisions this week: Not to launch criminal proceedings against Israeli Arab filmmaker Mohammad Bakri, who directed the movie "Jenin, Jenin."

The film was released in 2002 after Operation Defensive Shield, and the High Court of Justice overturned a decision to ban its screening. Several years later, former Attorney General Menachem Mazuz rejected a request to launch criminal proceedings against Bakri.

Reserve soldiers who fought in Jenin filed civilian libel suits against Bakri, which were rejected in all courts. The distressed soldiers turned to the attorney general again, in a desperate attempt to utilize the criminal option to the fullest. This week, Weinstein rejected the request once again.

In his decision, the attorney general goes on about how the film is a libel, but says that the courts' rulings, which emphasize the lies featured in the film, are enough for the public to judge for itself. How naïve. Does anyone bother reading the rulings in the auditoriums Bakri continues to fill around the world with his film's screenings?

If there is a case in which the public enforcement system should rise up against libel, as the law enables it to, this is it: A case in which a person maliciously spreads blood libels against IDF soldiers who risked their lives for the state.

Alongside his caressing words, Weinstein has once again given IDF soldiers the cold shoulder.

The State of Israel will continue to allot funds to rearguard battles against the legal warfare abroad. Meanwhile, here, in our backyard, the weeds distributing the poison against Israel, which fuels the warfare on the international arena, will continue to grow, sponsored by the Justice Ministry.