Maj. Avichai Adraee serves as Head of the Arabic Media Department of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.. Photo IDF Spoksperson
Maj. Avichai Adraee serves as Head of the Arabic Media Department in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. In the past five years, during interviews with Arabic networks, he’s spoken almost entirely the language of Israel’s Arab cousins both in Israel and abroad.
To date, Adraee has made over 2,000 media appearances on the plasma screens of Israel’s neighbors. In the Second Lebanon War alone, he appeared 541 times, and in Operation Cast Lead 443 times. On average, during times of relative calm, he is interviewed between 15 and 20 times a day by Arabic language news networks.
Adraee says that he welcomes opportunities to be interviewed by a news channel regardless of the network’s opinion of Israel. He speaks with anyone who will listen. He is already a regular guest on Al Jazeera, though he’s never been welcome on Hezbollah or Hamas channels. He says he is often surprised by the final cut of an interview, when he sees that while his voice is heard, images of injured children and demolished Arab cities might be shown.
“The first interview during Operation Cast Lead was extremely difficult,” Adraee recalls. “When it was over, my friend called and said ‘We didn’t see you for a second. They played your voice while showing horrific images.’ I got so angry, I called Qatar and told them to put me back on the air or our relationship would be terminated immediately. I was put back on the air for another half hour of an interview. The first thing they said was, ‘You said we didn’t give you a chance to respond. Please, respond.’ That interview was difficult, in terms of the Arab viewers .”
Adraee’s work finds its way into his personal life often. His Facebook page includes over 500 Arab friends and through him even his Israeli friends have received many friend suggestions to Arabs all over the world. On the other hand, two Facebook groups which oppose him have been created, one of which is called “My enemy is Avichai Adraee” the other calling for 10,000 members to join in order to close down his Facebook profile. Today the latter has 30,000 members, but despite this, his profile remains up and running.
“About six months ago there was an article about my Facebook page on the website of The Muslim Brotherhood. The article explains to parents why social networks are dangerous, and how Facebook could lead to conversations between me and their children in which I could brainwash their kids.”
Maj. Adraee does not worry about his security, despite being one of the most well known IDF figure in the Arab world, second only to the Chief of General Staff. He assumes that in the Arab world, because people think of him as a leading Israeli official, they also assume he is followed by high security.
It’s actually his Arab friends who are in danger. Less than a year ago, Adraee met up with five writers from the Gaza Strip and their meeting was reported in the Jerusalem Post. As a result, the writers were banned from the Association of Gazan Journalists and were threatened with revocation of their press licenses.
But this journalistic threat doesn’t stop the ordinary Palestinian from seeing Adraee as a sort of celebrity. “We were on a tour of the Offer prison, and people there gathered at the fences, smiled at me and said a few words,” he says. “When I was in Amsterdam with a friend after the Second Lebanon War, we were sitting in a caf? in civilian clothes, and a group of Arabs approached me and started talking to me. I said, ‘Wow, even here they recognize me?’ In the Judea and Samaria region it makes sense, but there I was really surprised.”
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