Scientists and communication strategists within Israel’s armed forces have highlighted the importance of the IDF’s presence on digital media as part of a broader effort to promote and justify its positions and objectives. The digital persona of the new generation of soldiers has become an inseparable and distinctive aspect of their military service. This strategy serves both military communication and psychological warfare, employing posts aimed at shaping public perception of what the Israeli occupation forces describe as a “calling” or “service to the nation.”
Already, numerous videos have surfaced online showing Israeli soldiers bombing while casually smoking shisha, bulldozing cars into apartment buildings, or taking mocking tours titled “This was my home”, ridiculing displaced Palestinians—scenes that no sane person could ever imagine as part of our shared reality.
The official IDF page on TikTok features everything from tank advertisements—“Get to know the jeep model that races across rough terrain at incredible speed, controlled by the driver of the military vehicle through a touchscreen”—to posts with Holocaust survivors, greetings, female soldiers, and young recruits vlogging their “war day routine”.
No, this isn’t an episode of Black Mirror—it is one of the most degrading and hollow moments in modern human and world history.
The short videos are truly shocking, though devoid of explicit violence. Green-uniformed soldiers with state-of-the-art weapons in hand, accompanied by background music and sentimental speeches—by historical or random figures—compose one of the most hypocritical tributes to militarism, nationalism, and authoritarianism.
“When terrorists attack us with rockets—don’t worry! We have the Iron Dome, whose job is to stop them…”
The Israeli army’s profile advertises peaceful and “safe” weapons—weapons that kill, but for a good cause.
“Accidents happen,” a female soldier later informs us, referring to certain “incidents” that took place in Judea and Samaria.
Specifically, Israeli soldiers vandalised local residents’ property, and of course, the IDF’s upper command rushed to contain the situation—presenting it as an isolated event supposedly incompatible with Israel’s moral code.
At the very same time that thousands upon thousands of children, women, the elderly, and civilians are suffering—being maimed, disabled, or killed—TikTok features, unbelievably, a post dedicated to World Autism Awareness Day.
Liri is a young scientist who contributes to a military programme designed to support the participation of individuals on the autism spectrum.
An army that kills—or rather, that massacres—now claims to care about the right of people with autism to participate in war. In other words, the IDF seeks to break down barriers of discrimination within the production of the human war machine.
Meanwhile, the people of Israel are themselves living through difficult times that affect their emotional vulnerability. For this reason, specialised scientists and teachers are involved in programmes that provide emotional support to individuals on the spectrum.
“Everyone can play an important role in defending their homeland…!” a soldier tells us before signing off in the video.
A little later, with a trap track by Gucci Mane playing in the background, he uses a trending format to ask his followers: “I hope you’ve never supported Hamas terrorists?”
The vulgarity and humiliation of human existence—and the hypocrisy—continue with the next trending post: the one we all know as “Never Have I Ever…” They share their experiences with followers, singing, laughing, and dreaming about their future in the most warlike of war industries.
The majority of people on the platform representing the Israeli army are, unfortunately, young—barely reaching thirty years of age. This observation only further highlights the character, moral code, and objectives of the nationalist state of Israel. It shapes generations and citizens with authoritarian, aggressive, and fascistic traits — people who will trample human rights, fight every trace of resistance, and, if necessary (as is already happening), disregard international institutions and laws, holding their heads high, wearing helmets of darkness, and wielding relentless violence.
Surely, humanity has walked—and continues to walk—the path of atrocities many times, including that of ethnic cleansing. Yet today, these conditions are being shamelessly and ideologically legitimised. The rejection of international and universal principles, combined with the tolerance of other states and the active support for Israel’s war machine, constitutes a murder of truth, of democracy, and of the very essence of human civilisation.
Let us not grow used to horror, for what we tolerate in silence will one day come for us too.
