A report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that young settlers in the West Bank are posting advertisements on the WhatsApp application to hire reserve soldiers to protect agricultural settlement outposts (kibbutzim) and help establish others. The soldiers work about 70 hours a week in exchange for mattresses and temporary housing, and they receive orders directly from the settlers.
The newspaper’s correspondent in the West Bank, Hagar Shezaf, said that the reserve soldiers are part of the so-called regional defense brigades of the army, known by the Hebrew abbreviation “Hagagar,” and many of them are settlers, and the government has deployed 7,000 of them to guard the settlements since the beginning of the war on Gaza.
“We are a group of 18-year-old young men who are establishing a settlement outpost in the Hebron Hills and are looking for a person who has completed his military service to enroll in the Regional Defense Battalion, and he will receive a salary and a weapon,” said one of the advertisements that has been increasing in recent weeks.
Soldiers are called in accordance with Military Order No. 8, which is the official rule for calling up reserve soldiers in general. Under the order, recruits are entitled to receive rewards, including daily compensation worth $36 from the 32nd day of service until the 60th day, and the scope of this reward has been expanded. After numerous complaints, which guaranteed the reservists thousands of dollars.
Since the beginning of the war, incidents of harassment against Palestinians by heavily armed settlers wearing military uniforms have increased – according to the report – and despite the dwindling number of Phalange soldiers to two thousand soldiers – according to the military spokesman for the Israeli army – the settlers are now determined, through their advertisements, to obtain more Soldiers to expand their settlements and build new ones.
The settler leads the soldier
A soldier who communicated with the owner of the advertisement reported that the settlers were seeking to control two outposts in the occupied West Bank, but one of them was guarded by an unidentified gunman. The soldier was told, “We are looking for a solution to control the two outposts.”
The newspaper’s correspondent explained that before the war, these settlement outposts did not receive permanent military protection, but now the settlers control the recruitment process, as they ask reserve soldiers wishing to work to provide their Israeli ID number and military number, and then they are responsible for communicating with the military command.
According to the soldier’s experience, one of the settlers who owned the outpost assured him that he would receive orders directly from him, and told him, “It will be under the management of the person in charge of the outpost. We had reserve soldiers before, and this is how things were going.”
Another caller was told that there were two reserve soldiers at the outpost and that the number of soldiers was expected to reach six, and that the settlers would not sleep at the site until the number was complete, and that the soldiers would work 60 to 70 hours per week.
The soldiers were told: “There is water, solar energy, toilet, shower, tent, shade mats. But since we are just starting to receive the service of soldiers from the Territorial Defense Battalion, we cannot request a building from the army yet.”
According to one of the settlers in the Gush Etzion settlements, who said he is a reserve soldier, there is a military commander in the region who is officially responsible for the soldiers, but the reality on the ground is different. The settler said, “Theoretically, we are subordinate to the company commander in the region, but in the end I am the commander.”
