Ayelet Kreuzer, the newly appointed spokesperson for the far-left organization Breaking the Silence, has sparked controversy after accusing the IDF Spokesperson's Unit of manipulating information and misleading the public during the war.
In a post announcing her appointment, Kreuzer, who grew up in the haredi community before giving up her military exemption and enlisting in the IDF, described her experience serving in the military's Spokesperson's Unit as an eye-opening introduction to how the IDF presents its operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
"In the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, I was exposed not only to the reality in the West Bank and Gaza, but also to how the IDF chooses to present it to the public," she wrote. "During my service, I manipulated the details released to the media. I saw how the word terrorist was also applied to innocent Palestinians and how statements were tailored to the target audience and the objective set for it."
She also described preparing statements following military strikes in which dozens of people were killed, saying that expressing regret over civilian casualties was routinely incorporated into the military's messaging.
"I learned how to describe dozens of deaths in a single strike and automatically add that we regret any harm to uninvolved civilians. That was my service routine," she wrote.
However, her account quickly came under scrutiny after journalist Avishai Grinzaig reported that Kreuzer had served in the economic media section of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, rather than the department responsible for operational statements concerning military activity in Gaza.
"Who is she trying to fool? She served as a junior soldier in the tiny section called 'economic media' in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit," Grinzaig wrote. "At most, she manipulated the financial press regarding the dispute over the chief of staff's pension supplements. What does Gaza have to do with any of this?"
Globes journalist Dean Shmuel Elmas, who worked with Kreuzer during her military service, also challenged her account.
"Hi Ayelet, as a reporter at Israel's leading financial newspaper who worked with you when you were part of the economic media section in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, I honestly don't understand how you were 'exposed' to the things you describe."