Fake report of IDF spokesperson 'mass resignation' goes viral on social media

The IDF spokesperson’s unit is unfazed by false reports on Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 claiming that several senior officials in the unit have announced their retirement from the army despite the war in Gaza.

Channel 14’s Tamir Morag reported on Sunday night that several high-ranking officials in the IDF spokesperson’s unit announced their resignations around the same time amid the war.

Among them was “number two in the IDF spokesperson’s unit, Col. Shlomit Muller-Butbul,” who, according to the report, “is in the resignation process.”

“She was supposed to leave the week that the war broke out, but then, because the war broke out, she stayed a little,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post.

The Channel 14 report also claimed that “Moran Katz, a civilian employee of the IDF in the spokesperson’s unit at the colonel rank, quit after things didn’t work out ‘professionally and personally.’”

In reality, according to the source close to the matter, “Moran completed her contractual obligations and did not extend [her contract.]” This after over four years in her position.

Col. Tzofiya Moshkovitz was also reported as having resigned – but she has not done so. 

“Tzofiya isn’t leaving at all,” the source said. “She didn’t agree to resign and is far from resigning. There is no one replacing her, and she isn’t replacing anyone. This is an outright lie.”

The report additionally claimed that IDF spokesperson to foreign media Col. Richard Hecht is resigning – this is true. However, the report claimed that he resigned after someone was positioned to “oversee him,” and that was never the case. 

Col. Merav Granot Stoller, also reported as having resigned, has simply “reached retirement age,” the source explained. “Even that wasn’t agreed upon; she simply reached the relevant age.”

"Because we know the truth, we aren't phased by this report, truly," the source concluded.

 Morag, the author of the report, claimed, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) clarifying the report, that the media “avoids dealing with these issues because they eat out of the IDF spokesperson’s unit’s hands and depend on it.”

המון תגובות לאייטם אתמול על דובר צה"ל, אז אנסה להתייחס במרוכז:1. מפת הקשרים של דניאל הגרי עם בכירים בקואליציה היא נושא סופר-רלוונטי וחשוב, כך גם העזיבות מיחידת דו"צ תוך כדי מלחמה. כפי שצוין באייטם, חלק מהעזיבות הן תוצאה של מהלך עניינים טבעי במערכת צבאית, אבל הצבר גדול יחסית…

— תמיר מורג Tamir Morag (@Tamir114) March 4, 2024

“The dependence of military reporters on the IDF spokesperson’s unit is a unique and very unhealthy phenomenon that does not exist in other fields of coverage,” he claimed.

The false report went viral on different media sources and social media

Despite being false, this report has been shared widely on posts throughout social media sources, including Reddit, Threads, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.

The report has also been posted on London-based Arab media source Middle East Eye, which has over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, as well as Turkish news website TRT World, which has 2.1 million followers.

On these various posts on different media sites, authors of the posts sharing this false report have also altered the original text to say that the officials were resigning over issues with the ongoing war in Gaza, with some posts "citing" personal objection to being 'implicit in genocide."

Some have also falsely reported, such as Al Jazeera, that IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari himself has resigned from his position. 

Al Jazeera has since retracted the statement. The original post that contained the false information has reached over 31 thousand views. 

RETRACTION: 04/03/2024: An update originally cited an Israeli report as saying that senior members of the Israeli military’s Spokesperson’s Unit, including high-ranking spokesperson Daniel Hagari, had resigned. That was incorrect and the Israeli army has since denied it as…

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 4, 2024