A mental health officer attached to the IDF’s Alexandroni Brigade was dismissed on Tuesday for calling Religious Zionist soldiers “death eaters” the day before.
Adi Angert, a social worker in the reserve infantry brigade, made the controversial statement in the reply section on X during a text exchange with Channel 11 reporter Haim Goldich.
It began when Goldich criticized an Aug. 26 column by Haaretz writer Rogel Alpher, who claimed that Laly Derai, mother of Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Saadia Yaakov Derai, 27, an Alexandroni soldier killed in Gaza in late June, was satisfied by her son’s death.
Goldich replied: “Disgusting. It isn’t enough that people sacrifice their lives so that we can live here ... this guy has the audacity to write such disgusting things about a bereaved mother. Ungrateful, repulsive and shocking. You are not worthy of the sacrifice, and it’s a shame for the country that such a terrible text as this appears.”
Angert interjected, defending Alpher: “What is shocking about what he wrote? You wouldn’t believe it, but there are cultures in Israel for whom death is not a work plan.”
Goldich replied: “Have you ever met Laly? Do you have any idea who the woman is? Do you think it is legitimate to write about a mother mourning for a month and a half, who lost her son from our division and is grieving in pain, that she is satisfied about that?”
“Take what she said literally. She’s dead proud. It is a terrible thing, and that is Religious Zionism—a sect of death-eaters,” Angert wrote.
Goldich serves in the same 9203 Battalion as did Saadia Derai.
Also this week, Angert criticized Lt. Col. Moshe Passal, who took over as the brigade’s new commander on Aug. 21.
“A new commander has entered the brigade. First of all, he wishes the fighters to commit genocide. Charming,” Angert wrote. It’s not clear to which section of his speech she referred.
Following her remarks, Religious Zionism Party leader Bezalel Smotrich called for Angert’s ouster. Knesset Member Simcha Rothman, also of the party, said, “It is impossible that Religious Zionist soldiers, who serve and ... many of whom unfortunately ... fall in battle, should have to seek mental health treatment from an officer who despises them, calls them a ‘sect of Death Eaters’ and compares them to the enemy.”
Prior to removing Angert from her position, the IDF stated, “These are serious matters and do not correspond to what is expected of commanders in the IDF.”
