Ya’alon orders investigation into Breaking the Silence ‘treason’

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says he has opened an investigation into reports that the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence collected classified information on the IDF.

“If you are worried about the morality of the IDF, if you are worried about the way we operate, why do you go and talk about it abroad? That means, there is a political agenda here,” he tells a group of students in the northern kibbutz of Kfar Blum.

Speaking of the methods that Breaking the Silence used to gather information on the IDF he added, “If they make use of it externally that is very serious, or if they distribute the material abroad — it is treason. If they keep it just for themselves, it also is,” he says.

“That is the reason that I ordered an investigation to be opened. I didn’t say we should shut them up, I didn’t say we should make them illegal.”

Ya’alon also warns that if soldiers made use of any classified information they were exposed to during their service or passed it on to unauthorized people it is also a transgression.

“It is the right of everyone in country to speak out, unless the declarations cause real damage to the security of the country.”