The director of Ad Kan reveals to the members of Sovereignty Youth the special techniques his organization uses in the battle against the slanderers of Israel and its defense forces.
Gilad Ach, director of Ad Kan, presented to the dozens of youths participating in the Sovereignty youth Movement’s Hanukah seminar, some of the methods used by his organization in the battle against delegitimization, that radical Leftist organizations and Palestinian organizations use against Israel.
“These days, the practice of Zionism is confused because it is not clear what is good and what is bad, compared with previous periods when it was clear who was an enemy and who is a friend. These days, the media, as well as other bodies, present the enemy a bit differently and this leads to confusion”, especially among the youth, and confusion can lead to reckless acts. This is why we chose the longer path, establishing NGOs and working vis-a-vis companies and the media”, Ach began, describing the motto that led him to establish the organization and other NGOs.
Gilad Ach’s personal story begins with the death of his brother, one of the people who fought in the Israeli “seals” unit and died after being exposed to severe pollution in the Kishon River. As part of the struggle for recognition of the Kishon victims, he established an NGO for those involved with the seals unit, which documented the pollution of the river using field camouflage and remote photography. This is how he became deeply familiar with the issue of the environment and the harm done to nature by Arab bodies throughout Judea and Samaria.
“We began to document phenomena of Arab pollution in Judea and Samaria. Landfills, quarries, etc. We collected data and documentation and gave it to the Office to Defend the Environment, but it turned out that they did nothing at all with it”. He says that he understood that it is necessary to fill the operational vacuum that the state had neglected. After raising funds and establishing field and research teams he began to act to change the situation on the ground. “In the state’s lack of action, I saw a trigger as to how to cause them to do things, even if reluctantly”.
From a rented room in a small apartment in the town of Eli and with the meager economic support of 93,000 shekels per year, they began their work.
Gilad Ach described the phenomenon of discarding garbage in Judea and Samaria that he exposed in 2011 and revealed that the garbage was discarded by criminal elements on the side of the road in Judea and Samaria instead of bringing it to a landfill site that requires payment as stipulated by law. This is how they actually turned Judea and Samaria into a garbage dump in the State of Israel’s back yard.
Gilad Ach’s people infiltrated landfill sites and documented the crimes that were committed every day by hundreds of trucks that passed military checkpoints by using forged documents. The information that was collected led to legal battles and revelations in the media and it turned out that sometimes they were the only ones that had the influence to pressure the officials to act to stop the phenomenon.
Ach also spoke about the Arab pirate quarries that chew up the landscapes of Judea and Samaria without any sort of oversight or enforcement. The movement’s research teams tracked down the economic engines behind this activity.
Ach told of one meeting with an Arab who lamented the severe air pollution resulting from the quarry in the village, which became one large quarry where quarrying is carried out between the houses. As he was speaking, two luxury Mercedes vehicles stopped near the house and people with suits on emerged from them. The villager immediately changed his words and told them that the noise of the digging is as pleasant to his ears as the song of Um Kultum (a famous Egyptian singer of the past)… When asked why he changed his words, he said that these were preventive security personnel of the Palestinian Authority and if they knew that he was complaining about the quarries, they would kill him.
It was clear from his words that the owner of the quarry is one of Abu Mazen’s people who rewards his allies with permits to establish quarries. This is backed by the Civil Administration and is done under the auspices of the Preventive Security Authority. “It turns out that this is how Israel assures that Hamas will not rise”, says Ach, and says that his movement’s work has led to the closing of about eighty such quarry sites throughout Judea and Samaria.
One special and fascinating part of Gilad Ach’s lecture focused on his movement’s work vis-à-vis leftist organizations that incite the Arabs in the villages of Judea and Samaria to violent activity against the IDF and the police. He began this activity following an event in which he saw how a Company Commander was trying to prevent the uprooting of orchards in the town of Esh Kodesh, but a Tel Aviv lawyer shamed him and prevented him from acting, claiming the rights of the anarchists to be at the place on the grounds of freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
This event led Ach to the conclusion that despite the importance of the environment, it is more urgent to deal with matters that have more influence on Israeli society. “We stopped dealing with environmental matters and began to focus on various organizations that create delegitimization of Israel”.
“Organizations from Israel and from abroad and the PA work to create confrontations in the field with IDF soldiers. They do this with legal backing and funding, said Ach, describing the work of his organization, which sent activists to infiltrate the activities of Anarchists Against the Fence”. These activists exposed how anarchists and leftist activists are inciting the people in the Arab villages to go to battle in four focal points every Friday. “The founder of Anarchists Against the Fence is documented paying Palestinians to throw stones. If the anarchists don’t come in, the Arab residents themselves don’t get involved”, says Ach, and presents a short film documenting how “after a briefing by members of the organization, they go out in a convoy to a confrontation with IDF soldiers and sometimes Hamas people join them”.
As part of his remarks, Ach quoted from an exchange of messages within the anarchists’ movement, where there were especially severe and upsetting expressions against the State of Israel and the security forces. “One of the activists relates, as good news, that two IDF soldiers were killed. The spokesperson of Betselem at the time plays down her joy, but says that she supports the armed struggle”.
Activists from Gilad Ach’s organization also exposed the close connection between leftist organizations such as Ta’ayush with Palestinian organizations that receive generous financial backing from international bodies and their people’s familiarity with the legal system in Israel allows them to take advantage of the legal platform to their benefit.