Occupied Jerusalem- Recruiting mercenaries from around the world to fight alongside the Israeli army in wars and military operations against the Palestinians was not a new idea, as the Zionist movement and Jewish gangs had previously launched a project to recruit mercenaries and Jews from around the world to fight in Palestine, at the beginning of the 1940s, through the “Mahal” organization. (Volunteers from abroad to Israel).
Since the Nakba and the 1948 war, the Israeli army has continued to rely on mercenaries to develop military forces and combat units, to participate in wars or fight alongside the Israeli army in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, in exchange for high wages, benefits and end-of-service allowances, as mercenary teams were institutionalized through “Lone Soldier” or “Dual Citizen Soldier” projects.
In 1947, Mahal was able to recruit more than 3,000 volunteers from 37 countries in Europe and America, the vast majority of whom were Jews who had been trained to fight, and they came to Palestine during 1948 to fight alongside armed Jewish gangs and organizations, and to help them in “establishing Israel on the basis of The ruins of the Palestinian people.”
Mercenary army
Mahel emissaries were secretly active among young Jews, appealing especially to World War II veterans, while other volunteers from Europe found their way to recruiters on their own initiative, where a recruitment center was established in Paris.
The mercenary volunteers took advantage of their stay in the camps in France for basic training, under the supervision of guides from the Zionist movement, where the Jews were waiting for their turn to immigrate to Palestine. All the Jewish mercenaries and volunteers arrived in Palestine in 1948, and participated in the war and the displacement of the people of Palestine.
The presence of mercenaries who were recruited by the Zionist movement in the Israeli army became prominent after the Nakba. They were the cornerstone of the air, naval and land forces. After the establishment of the army and the end of the war, many of them left Palestine.
In 1952, the “Neve Mal” neighborhood was established, a residential complex containing 100 apartments, located east of Tel Aviv, and was inhabited by families of mercenaries from England, the United States, and South Africa.
The lone soldier
The Israeli army was inspired by the success achieved by “Mahal” in recruiting Jewish mercenaries and volunteers, and officially established a special project within the army called “The Lone Soldier,” as the vast majority of lone soldiers came to Israel without their families, and they receive privileges and high wages, and are also allowed to Private work in addition to their service in the Israeli army.
According to data from the Israeli Ministry of Security and the Knesset Research and Information Unit, the number of “lone soldiers” in the Israeli army reached approximately 6,000 soldiers, recruited from 70 countries, and the percentage of Jews among them is only 20%, while 80% came alone and without their families, which means that the percentage Most of the only foreign soldiers are mercenaries.
The “lone soldiers” participate alongside the Israeli army forces in the war on Gaza and ground battles, where half of them serve in combat units, and are distinguished by their ferocity and danger in combat.
The “lone soldier” receives many benefits, such as a fixed monthly stipend worth thousands of dollars in addition to his wages, gift cards on holiday evenings, a marriage grant, food parcels, various financial benefits, financing a flight to visit parents abroad, rental assistance, and maintenance financing. Apartment, tax exemption.
Dual nationality army
Russia, Ukraine, Britain, America, France, and South Africa top the list of countries whose citizens participate in the ranks of the Israeli army, whether as groups of mercenaries recruited through private Israeli security companies, which are active throughout the year around the world, or through military service in the Israeli army due to “dual citizenship.” .
The official Israeli radio “Kan” estimated that there are tens of thousands – Russian immigrants with Israeli and Russian “dual citizenship” – who are still serving in the Israeli army in the context of civil service and within the reserve forces, and are participating in the war on Gaza, in light of Israeli fears of the possibility that… They are recruited into the Russian army during the Ukraine war.
A tweet by former football player Eric Cantona exposed the army of mercenaries and dual nationality fighters participating in the war on Gaza. In a post on his Instagram account, the former star of Manchester United and the French national team wondered how the state dealt with French dual nationals who traveled to recruit or volunteer in the army. The Israeli war on Gaza.
Cantona wrote, “These four thousand soldiers who hold Israeli-French citizenship, and who left the country to join the Israeli army in order to exterminate the Palestinians, under the pretext of waging a war against Hamas, will they be able to return to France as if nothing had happened? Will they be tried for their actions?”
Mercenaries in the war on Gaza
“Globus” newspaper spoke about a new report issued a few days ago by the Russian side, stating that the mercenaries who fought in Ukraine against the Russian army “packed their belongings and moved to fight alongside the Israeli army in Gaza.”
In the context of strengthening the ranks of the “mercenary army” during the war on Gaza, the website of the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” revealed thousands of new immigrants who fled from Ukraine and Russia because of the war, and were mobilized to volunteer at Israeli army bases to fight and collect donations and equipment for the soldiers. It is estimated that about 1,500 new immigrants from Russia and Ukraine have the ability to fight and serve in the military.
Also, hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers stayed in Israel for treatment and rehabilitation, as a result of their injuries during the Russian-Ukrainian war, and did not return to Kiev, and it is estimated that many of them engaged in fighting and ground incursions into the Strip as part of mercenary teams.
This comes while the Israeli media kept quiet about the participation of Ukrainians alongside the army in the war on Gaza and the ground battles in the Gaza Strip, but video clips and press reports documented Ukrainian fighters joining the fight with Israeli soldiers in Gaza, and 7 of them were killed in the battles in the Shujaiya neighborhood.
In another indication of the Israeli army’s use of mercenaries, the South African Foreign Ministry threatened its citizens living in Israel, warning them against joining the Israeli army in the war on Gaza, and stressed that this would expose them to the risk of prosecution in the country on charges of violating international law. Note that there are thousands of South African citizens living in Israel.