Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari demanded on Wednesday that the country’s Channel 14 broadcaster take down an “inciting” meme mocking IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
The AI-generated meme, which aired on Channel 14‘s top-rated “The Patriots” show on Tuesday and was published on social media, ridicules Halevi over an incident in which he reportedly removed a “Messiah” patch from a soldier’s uniform during a tour of Southern Lebanon.
“We expect the content to be taken down and the incitement to stop immediately,” Hagari wrote to Channel 14, copying in Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi as well as the Second Authority for Television and Radio, which regulates commercial broadcasts.
According to the military spokesman, “The content broadcast on Channel 14 yesterday crosses a red line. This constitutes deliberate incitement and humiliation of the IDF and its commanders in wartime.”
Hagari claimed that the IDF “does not fear criticism and encourages an open discourse,” noting that it “has received and endured substantial criticism from all media outlets over the past year, as it should be.”
In a public response, Channel 14 urged Halevi to “clarify to Rear Admiral Hagari that he is a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces and not a television critic.” The channel also said it “did not broadcast any inciting video against the IDF or against any of its commanders.”
Israel Hayom reported on Tuesday that Halevi, during a visit to IDF troops serving in Lebanon on Oct. 16, instructed a religious soldier to remove a morale patch containing the word “Messiah” and a crown, a symbol associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement.
Halevi reportedly approached the fighter, removed the patch, and put it in the soldier’s shirt pocket. He was said to have explained that the soldier could keep it, but it should not be displayed on the IDF uniform. Halevi took similar actions in the past, Israel Hayom said.
Hagari’s office did not respond to the Israel Hayom article on Tuesday.
Since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, mass murder of some 1,200 people in southern Israel, a trend has developed of troops wearing various “morale patches,” despite regulations prohibiting the display of non-military symbols. Critics have noted that the IDF at times has promoted non-official symbols, including the LGBTQ flag.
