The ‘Ad Kan’ and ‘HaBithonistim’ organizations sent a letter to foreign ministers, ambassadors and other officials regarding their countries’ funding of Breaking the Silence.
In their letter, the organizations noted that Breaking the Silence gathers classified information on IDF soldiers and that a Supreme Court petition has been filed, which also names the relevant countries as respondents. They emphasized that it is inconceivable that a friendly nation would support the gathering of classified information on an ally. The letter concluded by asking the countries to end their relationship with Breaking the Silence and stop providing them funding immediately.
The letters were sent to the foreign ministers of Britain, Belgium, France, and the European Union (EU). The letter also included a copy of the research by the ‘Ad Kan’ organization that demonstrated that Breaking the Silence obtains classified information from IDF soldiers under the guise of ‘gathering testimonials.’
The Ad Kan investigation revealed that Breaking the Silence activists question IDF soldiers about information related to classified IDF units, advanced military tactics, the placement of forces, locations of trackers to prevent the infiltration of terrorists in the North and South, and other information.
In addition, each letter noted the amount of money that the given country had provided Breaking the Silence in the past decade. Britain gave at least 205k Euros, Belgium gave 416k Euros, France gave 72k Euros, and the EU gave 917k Euros. The letters also noted that a portion of the funds went directly to ‘gathering testimonials,’ from which the classified information is obtained.
‘Ad Kan’ has petitioned the Supreme Court, together with ‘HaBithonistim,’ demanding that a criminal investigation be opened against Breaking the Silence for gathering classified information and participating in espionage.
In the petition, senior IDF officials noted that the investigation’s findings demonstrate that Breaking the Silence “systematically gathers information and intelligence about the IDF, its abilities and its actions… the group has large amounts of information marked as ‘secret’ and perhaps higher classifications as well. This information could end up in the hands of enemy parties.” The officers continued, “The answers given by soldiers to Breaking the Silence activists include ‘secret’ information… There is significant cause to open an investigation into these testimonials to understand the nature of the information contained therein.”
In the letter to the foreign ministers, it was noted that the countries that fund Breaking the Silence were included as respondents in the Supreme Court Petition and that ‘Ad Kan’ and ‘HaBitchonistim’ view these countries’ actions as a direct and serious violation of Israeli sovereignty and national security. They further detailed that in friendly relations between nations “it is inconceivable that a country would fund a civilian organization that operates within another country’s borders… when part of the main efforts of that civilian organization involves gathering classified information.”
The letter noted that “it would be appropriate for your government to end financial support of these activities. Gathering of sensitive security information is a red line in relations between allies.” The authors noted that it is also possible that Breaking the Silence obscured its activities when discussing them with the governments who provided funding.
In any case, the authors demanded that “your country announce immediately that you are ending your relationship with Breaking the Silence and cancelling any future payments to the organization.”
Gilad Ach, Director of Ad Kan, said, “No democratic country would allow an ally to carry out espionage on its military, even if the espionage is under the guise of a ‘human rights’ group. The financial support that Breaking the Silence receives from European nations is used to gather classified information on the IDF and must stop. We call on the representatives of all these countries to end their support of espionage.”