Bereaved families criticized the anti-government protest organization Brothers in Arms for listing their loved ones who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip to its political campaign against the government and the Prime Minister.
The political organization, which recently claimed that it was not politically active during the war, published an ad with the names of the soldiers who fell during the war claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not care about the fallen and victims. "The people of Israel understand that for you, 1200 murdered victims are just extras in a campaign. To you, the great tragedy is an accounting graph. The ones who were butchered, abducted from their homes, those who were raped, and those who gave their lives to protect the homeland are just a statistic," the organization wrote.
In response, bereaved families attack the organization. Eliyahu Duchan, the brother of the late Yohay Duchan, wrote on X: "Hello 'Brothers in Arms,' it would please me if you remove the name of my brother, Lt. Yohay Duchan from your political incitement campaign. In the future, as a political organization, you should ask the families of the fallen if they agree to desecrate the names of their loved ones in such a political campaign." Later, Duchan posted that in response to his post, Brothers in Arms blocked him on the social media platform and added: "Thanks for the objective answer."
Yehoshua Shani, the father of Cpt. Ori Mordehai Shani, who fell in Gaza, was infuriated by the ad and wrote: "As a bereaved father, I feel like this despicable organization is defiling my son's memory! They are making political use of the most holy thing. Since my son fell, I felt that the nation was learning its lesson and was changing direction. But this campaign is the pinnacle of wretchedness and the cynical use of bereavement."
Yehonatan Werner added: "'Brothers in Arms' took the names of people who fell and exploited them for political needs. There are 11 fallen soldiers whom I knew personally, and I spoke to them before October 7th, what they thought about this cynical organization was, if I can sum it up in two words: 'a garbage can.' Now they are taking advantage of them. In their memory, I write this tweet."
In light of the criticism, Brothers in Arms recanted: "Due to requests from our brothers, we have removed the post and posted a new one with a different picture. We are furious at Prime Minister Netanyahu, who looked at the victims of October 7th like they were a statistic that served a campaign. However, if there are holy bereaved families who were hurt by the post, we accept that, apologize, and are changing."