Ex-Shin Bet analysts recruited to fight coronavirus within Israeli-Arab society

Journalist Yoav Etiel reported Oct. 4 on the Walla! News website that the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command is recruiting “experienced” former Shin Bet operatives “who specialized in the Arab-Israeli community,” to participate in an information campaign planned to combat the coronavirus in the Arab community. According to the official announcement, “The campaign will be charged with formulating a status report for each of the different sectors of the population in order to help the relevant divisions in the Home Front Command develop appropriate courses of action and formulate messages targeting these specific communities."

This remarkable statement certainly raises some questions. For example, why would the Home Front Command not approach actual Arab citizens in its search for candidates with the requisite skills, as well as familiarity with the Arab community? Why would it prefer, instead, to turn to former members of the Shin Bet, an organization that has nothing to do with civil affairs in the Arab society — an organization whose very mention evokes negative connotations among the Arab population? After all, the Shin Bet is an internal security agency that closely identifies with the tracking and tailing of Arab citizens, whom it sees as posing a potential threat to the country. On a more mundane level, it is responsible for the humiliation that Arab citizens undergo at Ben Gurion airport, as reported in an earlier article. Why, then, would the Home Front Command insist on relegating responsibility to former members of the Shin Bet? Is this some covert attempt by Israel to exploit the coronavirus to collect intelligence about its Arab citizens?

An IDF spokesperson told Al-Monitor, “The IDF and the Home Front Command consider the fight to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to be a national mission of the highest priority, and are therefore doing whatever is necessary to help. The IDF does not engage in tracking Arab citizens, nor does it infringe on their privacy. So far, it has recruited approximately 200 people, including analysts, media figures, creative talents and speakers of various languages to engage in this information campaign.”

A more comprehensive picture was provided by a source in the Home Front Command in a conversation with Al-Monitor. The source said on condition of anonymity, “The underlying goal in the recruitment of former members of the Shin Bet is to find analysts to process data. So far we have eight such analysts, of whom only four are former Shin Bet agents. Furthermore, our analysts work on data from other sectors of the population, and not just the Arab sector.” When asked whether the Shin Bet is the only group capable of analyzing and processing the relevant data, he responded, “It is a well-known fact that the Shin Bet has the highest quality individuals engaged in this. The purpose here is to help. It is not to keep tabs on citizens.”