An IDF soldier from Battalion 605 has been confined to his base for 28 days after having been found to have lied to his commanding officers about removing a post supporting Elor Azariya from his Facebook page. Channel 10 reported that the soldier had made political statements supporting Azariya, who was recently convicted of manslaughter for shooting a wounded Arab terrorist, on his Facebook page. The battalion commander requested that he delete the post. However, the soldier was found to have lied and the post remained up. An IDF spokesperson said: "The IDF allows its personnel to use social networks. Social networks in the IDF are a public sphere for everything where soldiers are expected to adhere to [certain standards] and to operate them while maintaining informational security practices, human dignity, and to refrain from engaging in politics and not to [publicly criticize] court decisions and military commanders." The spokesperson continued: "The issue of the conduct expected of a soldier on the social network is transmitted to all those who serve through lesson plans...and any deviation brought to the attention of the IDF is handled by officers." The soldier plead guilty to the charge of refusing to comply with his orders and that he understands that he made a mistake when he filmed a video in-uniform dealing with the Azariya trial and that he should take the video down. "We had conversations with the soldiers even after the verdict in which we explained this issue to them and what was expected of an IDF soldier."
