Under the General's Nose: Who is Hunting Our Soldiers?
The post was accompanied by clear photos of the soldier; in one she is smiling with friends, her face clearly visible, in another she covers part of her face, realizing who she is dealing with.
A post popped up on my Facebook feed featuring a soldier. The author, in English of course, stated the soldier's full name and added: "L. is an IDF commander in the Jordan Valley and has been documented committing war crimes against civilians. Make her famous." The post was accompanied by clear photos of the soldier. In one, she is smiling with friends, her face clearly visible; in another, she covers part of her face, realizing who she is dealing with.
The person who uploaded the photos and details of the soldier is Andrei Kharzhevsky, a prominent anti-Israel activist. With hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, he wanders throughout Judea and Samaria and also within Israel proper, and does not shy away from any means. He creates provocations against residents and farmers, harasses soldiers, taunts them, violates orders, vandalizes a memorial for a fallen soldier from October 7, taunts soldiers at the Gaza border, and more.
Kharzhevsky immigrated to Israel from Russia in 2022. He fled from there because "it was the passport that was easiest for me to obtain" (according to him, in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper) — and he has been here ever since. He received asylum in the Jewish state, which grants safe haven to anyone eligible under the Law of Return — and Andrei is eligible. Andrei speaks only English because he is not addressing the Israeli public at all, which does not interest him. "I left that society. I live in the West Bank and socialize with Palestinians. I don't think I would define myself as an Israeli," he says. And what about returning to Russia? "I am afraid to return to Russia and sit in prison for 20 years... If you return to Russia, you have to be silent, and I am not capable of being silent." And so, he spits in the well that watered him, a privilege of Jews, and stabs a knife in the back of the country that granted him safe haven.
Last week, when the entire country was busy with the complex and shameful incident in Qusra, Andrei was one of the provocateurs on the ground and acted against the soldiers. In one of the documented cases, he tried to infiltrate a closed military zone in an ambulance, using methods reminiscent of Hamas tactics, while sitting in the front seat and documenting the soldiers. Since then, Andrei has managed to upload another post with photos of soldiers from another area in Judea and Samaria. There, too, he asked his hundreds of thousands of followers to identify the soldiers and "make them famous."
The responses to his posts are full of antisemitism and hatred. His followers tag the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Hind Rajab Foundation (an organization that pursues IDF soldiers around the world), various UN organizations, and more. All this is accompanied by antisemitic cartoons and engineered images of "Israel's war crimes." The soldiers are completely exposed to a well-oiled and sophisticated propaganda machine, which includes not only Andrei, but organizations and massive international money intended to pursue Israel and the soldiers personally.
Andrei is not alone. Daria Yurova, a friend of Andrei's, who goes by the online handle "Adele Choco," walks around Judea and Samaria with a "PRESS" vest and confronts security forces, while filming everything and uploading it to the networks. By the way, this same Daria Yurova also wants to receive Israeli citizenship, and she is currently waiting for approval from the Population and Immigration Authority. God forbid we have an "Andrei 2" case here. Joining them are radical Israeli activists, some from the organization "Looking the Occupation in the Eye," who also engage in mass shaming of soldiers and commanders on the ground.
Has anyone knocked on the door of these anti-Israel activists and demanded answers? Has anyone distanced them from the field? Has a restraining order been issued against them from Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley? Nothing. Everything is happening under the nose of the regional commander, the Chief of Staff, and the Minister of Defense. The soldiers are abandoned to the deadly jaws of the anti-Israel machine — and the State of Israel is not backing them up.
