A Palestinian man twice convicted and imprisoned for terrorist activities has been lecturing Israeli soldiers and officers as part of the IDF's education program, the independent news website 0404 revealed Tuesday.
Ali Abu Awwad served two prison terms in Israel in the 1980s. His first came after he was arrested in the mid-1980s for hurling stones and firebombs at Israeli troops in the West Bank. He refused to pay a 1,500 shekel fine and was imprisoned for three months.
He was arrested again in 1987, during the First Intifada, and convicted of being a member of Fatah, then still designated a terrorist group. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was released after four years as part of the 1993 Oslo Accords.
After his release from prison, Abu Awwad became a political activist and a proponent of nonviolence. He founded Taghyeer ("Change"), a Palestinian national movement promoting nonviolence to guarantee a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to the 0404 report, Abu Awwad's most recent lecture was to soldiers in the Etzion Brigade, which is routinely deployed in Judea and Samaria and oversees the Bethlehem sector.
An officer who attended the lecture told 0404 that Abu Awwad "spoke of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, the chances for peace, and stated that the IDF is, in fact, an 'occupation army.' I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears. I had to pinch myself. It's unthinkable that soldiers have to sit through a lecture by a terrorist before they are deployed.
"This is them [terrorists] trying to get into the commanders' heads, to weaken us from within."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit confirmed the report, saying, "The lecture was given by an organization that was not approved by the IDF's Education Corps. The brigade commander has reviewed the content of the lecture and the standing orders, and it was decided that such lectures will no longer take place."
The Brothers in Arms organization, a group of reserve soldiers who aim to "maintain the IDF's character as a moral and ethical army whose core value is adherence to the mission with the aim of defeating the enemy and maintaining Israel's security," urged Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to pursue legal action against the officers who authorized Abu Awwad's lectures in the first place.
"This is how anti-Israel groups try to rattle soldiers' determination and confidence – by legitimizing the Palestinian narrative, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist," group chairman Maj. (res.) Haim Teitelbaum wrote to Lieberman.
"These groups enjoy foreign funding from hostile entities that fight Israel from within. The question is, how did we get to a point where IDF officers see themselves as peacemakers instead of doing their job and serving as the defensive and offensive arm of the State of Israel?
"This [Abu Awwad's lectures] requires a thorough investigation of how radical leftist, anti-Zionist agendas are able to penetrate the IDF. I urge you to sever all ties with the organization this terrorist heads and prosecute those responsible for this education and ethical failure to the full extent of the law," Teitelbaum wrote.
