MK dropped from IDF reserves after Lebanon ‘office’ photo

Lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party, was dismissed on Saturday from active IDF military reserve duty after a picture circulated on social media showing him establishing a mock government office in a Southern Lebanon home.

The image, uploaded on Friday, showed Kroizer, 39, surrounded by soldiers from his unit—the 228th “Alon” Infantry Brigade—with the words “Office of MK Kroizer” painted in Hebrew on the wall in the background.

Kroizer’s dismissal was confirmed by the Knesset member in a Saturday night X post in which he claimed a report in Haaretz was responsible for his removal.

“Yes, I was dismissed from reserve service,” he wrote, “because of an inquiry by Haaretz newspaper into why a photo from me from Lebanon was published. I have had the privilege of fighting for you for more than 100 days in the past year, and I will continue to fight for you in the Israeli Knesset together with my colleagues from Otzma Yehudit.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit commented: “The incident was investigated, and it was decided to end the reserve service of the individual in question.”

Additionally, the IDF views the graffiti and the publication of the photo of Kroizer as violating protocol and “an action that does not serve an operational need on the battlefield,” according to Haaretz.

Ben-Gvir responded by posting the picture in question on X and stating that Kroizer is “the pride of Otzma Yehudit and the pride of the State of Israel.

“There are people in the IDF who seem to have forgotten who is a friend and who is an enemy!” the minister added.

National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz also responded to the news on X, writing that “discipline in the IDF is important, and the photo of MK Kroizer in Lebanon is a mistake that … possibly requires disciplinary action.

“At the same time,” Gantz, a former defense minister and IDF chief of staff, continued, “in times like these when we need soldiers …, the removal of an elected official who serves as an example and chooses to go out and fight sends the wrong message. … I call on the IDF to reconsider his dismissal.”

Kroizer served as a combat soldier in an elite unit for four and a half years and participated in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.