A Jerusalem NGO at the heart of the turmoil. Nearly four months after the deadly attacks of October 7 perpetrated by Hamas, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published on January 31 accuses certain members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish association Zaka of having used the events for financial purposes. 

Lack of rigor in identifying victims, dissemination of sensitive images on social networks, propagation of false information... The investigation by journalist Aaron Rabinowitz, based on testimonies from military personnel present during the recovery of the bodies, of volunteers from Zaka and other organizations, gives many examples.

Self-promotion has gone as far as the dissemination of false information widely reported on social networks and many international media. In a video, a Zaka volunteer notably reported the atrocious story of a pregnant woman killed in Beeri, whose body was allegedly disembowelled and the fetus stabbed.

“This horrific incident simply did not happen and is one of many stories that have been circulating without any basis,” the investigation says. No proof of this story, echoed by other Zaka volunteers in the media, has been established and no one within the kibbutz has heard of this woman. A senior Zaka official even admitted in a conversation with Haaretz that the organization knew the incident did not take place.

In its quest for media visibility, the organization broadcast "stories of atrocities that never took place, published sensitive and explicit photos, and demonstrated a lack of professionalism on the ground", reveals the newspaper on the basis of different testimonies.

Haaretz investigation reveals cases of negligence and the spreading of misinformation by the Zaka volunteer group, which began collecting bodies in the devastated communities of southern Israel immediately after the Hamas attack / @AronRabino1 https://t.co/ZAE3IuMq31

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 31, 2024

Negligence at crime scenes

Founded in 1989 after a suicide bombing on a bus traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Zaka became an official organization in 1995. Its acronym means "Zihuy Korbanot Asson", Hebrew for "disaster victim identification". The organization has more than 3,000 volunteers deployed throughout the country, primarily Orthodox Jews, who respond on the ground during terrorist attacks, road accidents or natural disasters to identify victims and bury them according to the Jewish tradition. 

If Zaka managed to take such an important place in the media space, it is thanks to his close collaboration with the Israeli army. Instead of deploying its own soldiers "trained in the identification and recovery of human remains" in the days following the Hamas attacks, the army chose to entrust the mission to Zaka volunteers, the newspaper continues. 

Israeli soldiers and Zaka Jerusalem volunteers search through debris in Kibbutz Beeri, near the border with Gaza, November 12, 2023. © Gil Cohen-Magen, AFP

Volunteers thus collected remains even before the intervention of the scientific police and incomplete bodies were transmitted to the forensic experts. An officer laments: "Such problems made the identification process very difficult. Some remains arrived at the morgue several days after the start of the war."

One soldier added: "If we had worked as we were taught, we could have spared many people unnecessary suffering [and] brought [the deceased] to the cemetery much sooner." 

Body bags and private visits 

According to Haaretz, Zaka volunteers were seen covering bodies already wrapped by the Israeli army with new body bags, emblazoned with the organization's logo. Several testimonies from officers and volunteers working at the Shura military base – converted into a morgue – confirm that many bodies arrived there wrapped in a double bag: an initial military bag and a Zaka bag on top.

An officer of the military rabbinate claims that this concerned “dozens of bodies, which complicated the work”, it is written in the investigation. 

Another revelation from Haaretz: Zaka allegedly organized private visits for his donors to the sites of the attacks, considered closed military zones, while civilians were excluded. A Zaka volunteer “met us at a nearby gas station, gave us and the donors Zaka vests, and that’s how we entered, with two vehicles,” says a source from Zaka to Haaretz. 

See alsoNGOs at the heart of the information war between Israel and Hamas

Call for generosity 

The investigation also reports sensitive and explicit videos and photos: “rows of bodies in bags, bloodstains and much more”, to arouse emotion. At the end of October, while the organization was still intervening in the kibbutzim, an influential member of Zaka appeared in a clip filmed on the ground. “In the video, he sings with his son a song that he wrote himself,” specifies Haaretz. “The video is accompanied by subtitles that aim to touch the heartstrings to call for generosity.” 

Along with calls for donations from the public, the organization received around 500,000 shekels (127,000 euros) in public funds to finance the cleaning of 500 houses damaged by the fighting. Financial aid which is not new, and takes place in a context of rivalry between the organizations responsible for recovering the bodies: Zaka Jerusalem, Zaka Tel Aviv – another organization founded in 1994 which has 400 members – and the Unit 360. “This competition has caused difficulties on the ground over the years, notably the dissemination of shocking photos that do not respect the dignity of the victims,” says Haaretz. 

Contacted by France 24, the Zaka Jerusalem association did not respond to our requests. To Hareetz, the organization affirmed that "its volunteers have worked closely with the responsible agencies on the ground, and that this collaboration is not a conflict of interest but a joint effort." She added that it is a "volunteer organization funded by donations. The war led to massive expenditures on equipment and supplies."

Zaka, who was on the verge of bankruptcy before October 7, is now drowning in donations. Thanks to the outpouring of solidarity sparked by the attacks, the organization managed to collect more than 50 million shekels (around 12.7 million euros), reveals an internal source at Zaka, cited by Haaretz.

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