In mid-April, a picture showing an Israeli soldier taking a sledgehammer to a statue of Jesus in the southern Lebanese town of Debel found its way online, rapidly zooming across social media and leaping into mainstream news as it ignited a firestorm of anger directed at Israel.

Most versions of the picture being circulated included a prominent watermark near the center of the image bearing the X handle of Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi.

Tirawi did not take the photo, however. Rather, it was another soldier who snapped the offending image and proceeded to post it on social media, where Tirawi, one of a cadre of online sleuths trawling troops’ online feeds to collect evidence of wrongdoing, could find it and show it to the world.

The incident, which drew a swift apology, underscored what critics claim is the Israel Defense Forces’ widespread maltreatment of civilians and disregard for Christians. But it also underscored the military’s lack of success in cracking down on soldiers posting a steady stream of photos, videos and other content to social media, exposing themselves and others to charges of misconduct, often justified, and offering fuel to the country’s many detractors.

Weeks later, on May 6, a new photo emerged from the same town, this one showing soldiers placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Like others, it had been found on a soldier’s Instagram feed.

Following the initial incident, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that soldiers, both in the standing army and reserves, “must not use social media as a tool to spread controversial messages or for self-promotion.”

“This is a red line that must not be crossed, and those who do so will be dealt with disciplinarily,” he said.

The message is one that the army has been repeating since early in the war in Gaza. As thousands of troops invaded the enclave following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, many took their phones with them.

What ensued was a surge of photos and videos uploaded by soldiers to social media platforms, offering a constant stream of material to critics of Israel. While the acts caught on photo or video largely fell below the threshold of war crimes, they still provided evidence of soldiers defying the army’s ethical code and acting with callous disregard toward civilians and their property, blackening the reputation of a military already perceived poorly by much of the world.

In addition, material showing soldiers’ faces has been used by those looking to expose individual troops and seek their prosecutions when they travel abroad.

Among the actions captured and shared by troops in Gaza were soldiers burning a Quran and other books, crushing an “I love Gaza” sign with a tank, vandalizing property, firing indiscriminately and multiple photos uncovered by Tirawi of service members posing with lingerie found in Palestinians’ homes.

“What we’ve seen in the current conflict is it’s not just the volume [of the posts], but it’s also the fact that soldiers don’t shy away from uploading videos, sometimes with their face,” or other identifying features, said Eran Shamir-Borer, director of the Center for Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute. “They’re not even ashamed of what they’re doing.”

In January, the Israel Defense Forces disciplined a soldier who posted a video of himself firing multiple shots toward the Gaza Strip, sentencing him to 20 days in military prison.

As in the Lebanon incident, the army moved to condemn the behavior after the footage emerged, calling it “a grave incident that does not accord with the values of the IDF and with the standards expected of combat soldiers and their commanders.”

Surge in social media use

Shamir-Borer noted that the rise........

© The Times of Israel