"It takes at least a week to get to know your role, in Hebron even more. That's why any volunteer who wants to stay in Hebron must stay there for at least a week. If a volunteer doesn't feel he is able to do the necessary work, he is free to leave. You will never be asked to do something you don't want to do. Being willing to talk to soldiers and confront them is a must in Hebron. You need to know the illegal colonial settlers and their potential threat to Palestinians, shop owners and international volunteers. Also, an important note regarding security: in the event of a home invasion, even if unlikely, throw away the This guide out the window or you will get rid of it in some way. It must not come into the hands of the army!"
With these words, which are clear and not ambiguous, the radical leftist organization ISM opens their classified guide for activists who are supposed to arrive in Hebron.
In 56 pages, some of which were recently published in Israel Hayom, they describe in detail the working method of the security forces.
Page by page they explain how the IDF operates, which units are more dangerous and which are less dangerous, who should be careful and who not, where and how the positions operate. They also point out who they define as "particularly violent settlers in Hebron": photos, signs of recognition, and even Identification plate numbers of their vehicles. In fact, except for an illustration of an intention on their faces, they have all their details that a terrorist wishing to carry out an attack would need. A document worth its weight in gold for a terrorist seeking to murder Israelis.
"Israel this week" received additional classified documents from a covert danger of the "Ad Kaan" organization, which operated within the radical organization, with an emphasis on the city of Hebron.
From these it appears that alongside information that they publish openly on their website and on social networks, either in an attempt to delegitimize Israel through any channel they can or to raise additional donations and volunteers, they are opening a window into the way in which extreme left-wing elements operate in the city.
The documents show a picture that is not easy to digest - the tasks that the volunteers are asked to perform, the close cooperation with other organizations with the aim of blackening the face of Israel, and above all - the demand from the volunteers to ignore repeated sexual harassment, and even worse, to act against the "occupation".
The camera is the weapon
Welcome to Hebron, the most complicated city in the world, where the so-called "occupation" is present in full force.
When you leave the western gate of Kiryat Arba, you go straight into the old city.
On an old road, which was renovated a few years ago, it still feels like it was paved in the 19th century, only Israeli cars drive, this after a series of deadly shooting attacks in the second intifada, with Palestinian houses on both sides.
In the last decade, Israelis have purchased several buildings near this road.
One of them, Beit HaShalom, was once called in the media "the house of strife" because of the conflicts that took place in it demanding its seat.
Today many Jewish families live there.
This road leads straight to the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Jewish settlement in Hebron.
From the anarchist's guide: "Follow settlers. Tweet, take pictures and videos. If someone is arrested, try to find out their name and identity and follow them to the police station. If you made the policeman shout that's good, he will leak information"
About 1,000 Israelis live in the Jewish part of the city, which makes up only about 3% of Hebron-Rabati, a city where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live.
Most of them live in the Avraham Avino, Beit Hadassah and Tel Rumeida neighborhoods, but in recent years there has been a trend of "home redemption", in which a number of residential houses outside the traditional area have been purchased.
Due to the location of the Jewish settlement, deep inside Hebron, and the severe attacks it experienced mainly during the second intifada, such as the murder of the baby Shalhab Fes by a Palestinian sniper, the entire area became a sort of fortress.
The Palestinian shops that were there were closed and have not opened to this day, Palestinians are not allowed to drive on these roads, and fortified checkpoints were placed at every weak point.
While these precautionary measures, accompanied by large forces of the IDF, MGB and police, are necessary to protect the Israelis, they are portrayed terribly and are used by left-wing organizations to supposedly prove that Israel is an apartheid state.
The fact that 97% of the city's areas are completely Palestinian, and an Israeli who enters them risks his life, falls on deaf ears.
The left-wing organizations make good use of the images and the mirrors in order to establish the delegitimization of Israel.
We saw an example of this last Friday, when a tour by the organization "Breaking the Silence" ended in a head-on confrontation with a Givat fighter.
Alongside the condemnations that the fighter apparently physically attacked the extreme leftist activist for no reason, it cannot be ignored that these are people who are looking for provocations, and who use cameras as weapons.
Thus, an "Al Jazeera" team that recently arrived in Hebron was confronted for several minutes with soldiers who were angry that the photographer had documented the checkpoint, something that is forbidden according to the procedures and which the local photographer is well aware of.
"The media mentions Hebron when there is an incident of extremism on the part of Jews, but that is rarer. On the other hand, there is daily anarchist activity in Hebron, people who come to fixed places to agitate the area, create a reality of conflict with the local residents, disturb the army and drag the fighters to less good places." , says Lt. Col. (res.) Yaron Buskila, currently the Secretary General of the "Habithonist" movement who previously held quite a few command positions in the explosive city.
"Every day they block the activities of the IDF.
Interfering with the fighters, separating them from people they should stop and encouraging violence by Arabs to produce a photograph.
I heard this week a reservist who said that the company commander told them to leave the weapons in the room and go out with cameras, because this is the mission.
The commanders learn that the main task is not to take a bad picture.
They are more afraid of the ammunition of the media."
The soldier who was recorded saying "Ben Gabir will make order here", and the letter of regret he sent to his commander, photo: Amro Issa and Tal Sagi
Hebron, as any current or past fighter knows, is something else.
Compared to activity in any other sector in Yosh, in Hebron the frontal confrontation with a provocative population is part of the reality. The Lord, for example, served four months in the sector and says that even though he was supposedly in a quieter area, at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, he too encountered provocations. "In the company's sector The neighbor had constant disturbances and problems, but it was not quiet with us either.
We had a position where every other day children came and threw stones at us, and we couldn't do anything to them.
This is a very media sensitive sector.
It is not a hot section, like Nablus or Jenin, but the friction is daily.
They warned us when we entered the sector, they told us that every step we take is being watched, and that we must adhere to the values of the IDF."
Maor Reda served in Hebron in 2018 and says that verbal confrontations were commonplace.
"The left-wing organizations have regular tours where they perform mind engineering on the audience they are with. Every time they would come - a security force would stick to them. The tour leaders usually do not interact with the soldiers, but those who come with them do try to confront sometimes. The soldiers are not suckers, they answer. This Burning in everyone, regardless of the right or the left. There were cases where I saw provocations, verbal confrontations. Look at the last incident. The one who was beaten by the soldier from Besut, he got his photo taken. Everyone comes there with cameras to try to document such an incident."
"I had dozens of frictions with leftists and Arabs," says G, who previously served as an officer in Hebron.
"As long as you don't introduce political opinions, everything is fine. The problem is that many times the soldiers introduce political opinions. It's a mistake. We have powers, we can use means to disperse demonstrations. When you start beating, it means you've lost your temper. Hebron is a challenging city. There are also extreme leftists And also extreme right-wingers who are looking for problems, and belligerent soldiers may fall into such a trap."
Lt. Col. (Res.) Buskila, for his part, believes that the problem lies in the conduct of the decision makers, who do not stop the activists even before they enter Hebron, which leads to an almost certain confrontation. possible.
Around 2012, the commander of the IOS division at the time, Nitzan Alon, realized that the radical leftist organizations were the main causes of friction and built a task force, part of whose purpose was to focus on these organizations and prevent them from arriving. The problem is that these actions were not carried out in Hebron. It is not possible that these organizations are the cause of the instability in the region already This has been the case for many years. Every person has a threshold point. Defense Minister Gantz pushed a child because something was thrown at him, so a young soldier? When you push a person into a corner for too long, he may break, and it is appropriate that the army address the whole incident and not just the unfortunate attack."
Second generation of kibbutz volunteers
Alongside the Israeli organizations, such as "Breaking the Silence", a number of international organizations are operating and are sending volunteers to the place.
In the past, there were a significant number of cases in which volunteers from abroad helped terrorists, acted unilaterally, or abused the settlers. Against the background of these cases, for example, the activities of members of the TIPH organization, an international observer team that operated since the Hebron Agreement until 2019, were suspended.
"The friction in Hebron with the IDF and the settlers is much greater than anywhere else," explains Gilad Ach, chairman of the "Ad Kan" organization, why the city has become such a sought-after arena among left-wing activists from abroad. "They have apartments in other places, such as Nablus and Ramallah, but there is no friction there and it is not interesting.
They no longer have Gaza and Gush Katif, so Hebron is the action.
They leave the apartments of the organizations and cross the road to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, all with cameras and shouting.
They sit in a cafe, drink at the business owner's expense and document the checkpoints and the activities of the IDF. These are people whose parents volunteered in the kibbutzim in the 1960s and 1970s. Once the challenge was the establishment of the Jewish state, and now the challenge is the establishment of a Palestinian state. 40% Some of them are innocent and take advantage of them, the other 60 percent know exactly what they are doing."
Lt. Col. (Res.) Yaron Buskila: "They disturb the fighters, stand between them and people who need to be arrested and encourage Arab violence in order to produce a photograph.
The commanders learn that the main task is not to take a bad picture"
Such are also the activists of the ISM organization - the "International Solidarity Movement".
This is an organization that claims that through the activities of foreign citizens, it is possible to undermine Israeli control over Israel. They achieve their goal through what they define as increasing world awareness of the suffering of the Palestinian side. They usually compare Israel to the apartheid policy in South Africa and openly support a boycott of Israel as part of a campaign The BDS. Volunteers come from various countries in Europe, live in the organization's apartments and go on various activities, the center of which is documenting the activities of the IDF against the Palestinians and uploading events in Hebron to social networks.
On the organization's YouTube account, you can see the type of documentation they upload, and especially the one-sidedness they use to provoke delegitimization.
Under militant titles they document events, some of them almost daily, and with the help of effective framing they turn them into injustice.
Thus, a fighter who demanded the volunteers, who work under cover and are not identified as activists, to evacuate from a certain area - earned the headline "Army forces attack demonstrators in occupied Hebron".
Fighters who gathered around a Palestinian vehicle that stopped in front of a checkpoint, apparently fearing that it was a captured vehicle, were defined as "Israeli soldiers harassing Palestinians in Hebron and threatening human rights activists."
Many videos document clashes between left-wing activists and fighters, and these are not coincidences.
In the organization's classified operating manual, written in 2017, they are clearly directed to confront the security forces.
"Follow every settler invasion. Tweet, take pictures or videos. If a child or an adult is arrested, try to find out their name and age and follow them to the police station. Try to get information. Even if you make the policeman yell at you - that's good, because he will leak information ".
Observations on barriers
This is a very detailed guide, which includes the volunteers' method of operation and how they should behave in any situation.
A kind of briefing like a company procedure or a file posted in the IDF. "Your main mission is to get to the schools," it said. They are instructed to monitor every activity of the IDF near the schools, and are informed about the opening hours of each school and its activities.
They don't bother with blatant lies that link the IDF to murder. "Sometimes if there is an execution, the schools end early."
In addition, they are instructed to "come to prayers on Friday, along with other organizations, with an emphasis on the Ibrahim Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs). You must monitor the activity at the checkpoints."
On Shabbat, the activists are instructed to follow the movement of the settlers along the worshipers' axis, the road that leads from Kiryat Arba to the Cave of the Patriarchs and where the settlers walk.
The detail is frightening: "They are going to the Ibrahim Mosque, to the part where the occupation forces installed a synagogue."
There is at least one team that covers the weekly arrival of settlers on Saturdays.
In summer time it is around 17:00 and in winter time around 15:30, depending on the weather and the situation in Hebron.
The timing may change or the "invasion" as they say will be canceled.
"It is likely that the invasion will be canceled if there is snow or heavy rain. It seems that the settlers or the large military forces that accompany them do not particularly like bad weather. The settler invasion usually starts from two places - the Yellow Gate (the western gate of Kiryat Arba - HC) or the entrance The rear (the southern exit of Kiryat Arba - HC)".
Maor Reda, a fighter who served in Hebron: "Some of them come to confront. Look at the last incident. The one who was beaten by the soldier from Besut, he got his photo taken. Everyone comes with cameras to try to document such an incident."
It should be noted that 20 years ago, terrorists tried to kill Israelis who were returning from the Cave of the Patriarchs on the route of worshipers, but because winter time had started a few days earlier, they arrived late.
12 fighters and members of the standby squad, including Brigadier General Yehuda Col. Dror Weinberg, were killed in the battle.
Intelligence information about the activities of the IDF and the settlers that reaches the terrorists makes it significantly easier to embark on such a killing spree.
A significant part of the guide is detail about the checkpoints in Hebron, which also includes descriptions and hours of operation that would not embarrass a professional espionage organization.
The security forces are careful not to allow the checkpoints to be photographed and demand that left-wing activists delete the photos, so that it is impossible to avoid the thought that this is documentation from a hidden camera.
Thus, regarding the checkpoint adjacent to the Cave of the Patriarchs, they write what its opening hours are and when it is open to Jews.
"Many Palestinians have been shot here, so there are those who prefer not to pass through it," they claim.
Another checkpoint is the one located at the Jewish entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs, or as they define it "the illegal 40 percent stolen by the Israelis".
According to them, as of the moment the guide was written, "the observers were forbidden to go there and they had to leave quickly".
One of the barriers on which they emphasize is called by them the "Quiton barrier".
They describe it as a problematic barrier around which there are quite a few conflicts.
"There is quite a lot of tear gas at this checkpoint and also a lot of stone throwing. The children can often trouble international officials, especially if they don't know us," they describe, but ignore the factors that start every such conflict - the Palestinians themselves.
Instead they focus on the Israeli forces: "This checkpoint has seen incredible amounts of tear gas, sometimes the effects were too extreme to continue counting how many grenades were fired - not only at the children and the schools but also at the entire neighborhood, as a form of collective punishment. Rarely Israeli forces may fire Steel balls are also coated with rubber."
In one of the descriptions of the checkpoints, they return and provide information that can help potential attackers carry out their plan.
"The bus station checkpoint", they call the checkpoint at the entrance to the access road that leads to the Cave of the Patriarchs, in front of which is an Israeli bus station that takes you to Kiryat Arba and from there north to Jerusalem.
"It is intended for the settler bus. As soon as a settler is standing there waiting, one of the soldiers has to come from the checkpoint opposite to 'guard' him", they underestimate the danger that the settlers face from the terrorists.
This is not a theoretical threat either: in November 2020, a terrorist arrived at the bus station.
At that time an Israeli citizen was standing there.
The soldiers of the IDF and MGB noticed suspicious behavior of the terrorist, 16 years old, and called him to stop.
During the inspection he suddenly threw a knife towards the floor.
Beware of Golani
"Golan fighters wear brown berets and their symbol is a green tree on a yellow background. This is one of the most decorated foot forces among the IDF units and they are 'famous' for their aggressive behavior towards Palestinians.
They are usually stationed on the border with Lebanon or inside Gaza," the fighters are described.
One by one, the writers of the radical left organization describe the various IDF units that sometimes serve in Hebron. They rank the units according to danger and challenges, and it is clear that they know very well who can be bullied more and who should not be messed with. However, the information they rely on , as of the time of writing the document in 2017, is flawed, to say the least. Thus, they claim that the Golani fighters are regular fighters, as opposed to the Givati or Nahal fighters.
They define the Kafir Brigade, which operates a lot in the Hebron area, as those who "were trained to be special forces, so they wear red boots instead of normal black boots."
Between Golani and Givati.
from the booklet,
They also differentiate between the IDF soldiers and the police and the IDF soldiers, who are considered to be more violent and have more extensive powers to detain and detain them. .
The Border Patrol is the fighting force of the police.
These guys can stop so be careful with them.
They can be quite angry or scary in Hebron.
The HSM is the anti-terrorist unit. They have gained a reputation for arresting Palestinians using excessive force and brutality," they describe.
There are also descriptions of several outposts in the city, including photos.
"It is impossible to avoid the Israeli soldiers in Hebron because of the many checkpoints. They often stop the ISM personnel and ask for details and passports. The soldiers may treat you well and provide you with information, but this can also cause problems. Some activists do not like to give the soldiers their passports and that is fine, But apparently they won't be allowed to pass."
They make it clear that there is no place to be friendly and talk to the soldiers: "Don't be friendly to the soldiers, don't make small talk with them or shake hands. If the Palestinians see us smiling and talking to them - it will give them a bad impression and they may think we are collaborators. In situations like arrests or Raids on houses, you should politely talk to the soldiers to get information. If settlers attack you, you should talk to the soldiers, because they care that you survive, nothing more, because otherwise there will be bad news about them."
"Never say you work with ISM," they emphasize the secretive aspect.
"You are here on a visit, on a trip or as a tourist."
In addition, they are warned that if they wish to file a complaint with the police, it may take time.
"The entry of several ISM personnel who filed official complaints about settler attacks was denied when they tried to re-enter Israel. It may be coincidental, but it may also be a direct result of the complaint."
In the event that an activist is arrested, the guide instructs them: "Hide your camera's memory cards and sensitive information."
If the IDF raids the apartment where they live, the instructor again instructs them to get rid of the classified document and hide the memory cards: "Socks are a good place."
"Ohana wears a T-shirt and often wears a kippah. He drives ambulances. He lives in Kiryat Arba and walks around the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs," the guide says.
To incite against him, they attached identification numbers of the ambulances
The secretive trend of the organization, which raises glaring question marks regarding the nature of its activities, is bearing fruit.
In a classified document dealing with the organization's activities, its directors report that "no one knows about ISM. There are no problems with the activists in the field."
One of the proposals in the document was to identify themselves with fake names to the IDF soldiers so that they could not act against them. "The name can be changed to confuse the soldiers," it says in black and white.
And there is also another enemy: the settlers.
The emphasis is on a number of well-known settlers in Hebron who have been active there for a long time.
One of the most prominent of them is Ofer Ohana, a member of the "Rescue Without Borders" organization who was seriously injured in an attack that took place in the city in early November. "Ofer Ohana wears a T-shirt and often wears a kippah.
Driving ambulances.
Lives in Kiryat Arba and usually hangs out in the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Salima neighborhood, the Zaid Jaber school and the worshipers' axis.
Warnings: disturbing, cursing, filming, preventing medical treatment for the wounded (apparently these are terrorists - HG) and there is a possibility of aggression."
For the blatant incitement against Ohana, they also added license plate numbers of the ambulances in which he travels and their photos, as well as numbers of ambulances that are not his.
It is about allowing Ohana's blood, no less, since this marks him as a target and even provides signs for his identification.
Other activists who are targeted by the radical left organization are Baruch Marzel, whom they define as a "radical and bearded Israeli politician", a man whose name is unknown to them who they claim is "aggressive, acts with physical violence and attacks with his car", and other Israelis.
These are the residents of the Jewish settlement in Hebron who usually confront them and therefore apparently see them as a threat.
"The ISM organization is a paramilitary organization that recruits operatives around the world, sends them to Israel, collects detailed information on military positions throughout the West Bank and on IDF units and Israeli civilians," says But.
"They document checkpoints and write down what hours each of them is open and how it operates. It's intelligence gathering for all intents and purposes, and I'm not sure any army would allow it. Every week they have a meeting with the other organizations in Hebron, and there are two Palestinian Authority members who oversee the meetings and hear everything. This document is a gift to the terrorists. The mayor of Hebron, Taysir Abu Sanina, is a convicted terrorist who murdered six Israelis in Hebron, a distinct Hamas figure. They give him all the information. Because they are European and blond, are they allowed to do anything? We must put a limit on it, and meanwhile the state Israel does not know how to manage the situation."
Despite our efforts, we were unable to get the INS organization's reference to the matter.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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