Knesset Member Ilan Gilon of the radical leftist Meretz faction and Musi Raz, the party's CEO, filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against SOS-Israel and its chairman, Rabbi Dov Shalom Wolpe. They allege the organization incited to mutiny and caused damage to the state's security by awarding cash prizes to soldiers who were jailed after protesting military policy.
SOS-Israel, also known as the Headquarters for Saving the Nation and the Land, awarded prizes of NIS 20,000 to the families of two soldiers from Shimshon Battalion who held up signs against the use of the military for evicting Jews from the ruins of Homesh in Samaria. The soldiers were sentenced to 20 days in jail following the incident and ousted from their battalion.
SOS-Israel noted that the soldiers “gave a lesson in healthy democracy” to others and “behaved in an exemplary fashion in their legitimate protest.” The soldiers “acted in order to take the IDF out of political disagreements that tear the army apart and cause a rift inside the nation,” they said. “The IDF has to operate in accordance with IDF values: fight the enemy and unite the entire nation,” the group's statement added.
SOS-Israel announced last week that it would also be awarding cash prizes to Cpl. Tzachi Kuratzi, a soldier from the Nachshon unit, for successfully preventing a terror attack in Kiryat Arba.
Quoting from the Talmud, Rabbi Wolpe said: “The civilians and soldiers who take action in this type of event carry out the Divine commandment, 'If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first', and offer an example to be emulated. There is no doubt that thanks to those civilians and IDF soldiers, many human lives were saved, including women and children. 'He who saves one soul from Israel, it is as if he saved an entire world.'”