Former Israeli soldiers did more than defend Israel’s narrative on the streets of New York. Some wore keffiyehs, waved Palestinian flags and posed as supporters of Palestine before directing passers-by towards a table run by a pro-Israel organisation near Columbia University.
Videos and testimonies published by US media indicate that the disguises were not incidental. They were part of a deliberate method used by the group to attract people sympathetic to Palestinians and engage them in conversation, prompting controversy over propaganda tactics and attempts to influence public opinion.
“We Are Israeli Soldiers. Ask Us Anything”
Front Line Advocates, a pro-Israel non-profit organisation, set up a table near Columbia University’s gates at Broadway and 116th Street last Tuesday.
A sign on the table read: “We are IDF soldiers. We were in Gaza. Ask us anything”, while video footage showed people nearby wearing keffiyehs and carrying Palestinian flags.
According to members of the group, however, they were not pro-Palestinian demonstrators. They were former Israeli soldiers who had disguised themselves in order to attract passers-by towards the table.
Pro-Israel activist Chloe Smith told the Columbia Daily Spectator that the idea emerged after participants noticed that relatively few people had stopped at the table on their first day.
They therefore decided to use disguises to attract more passers-by and direct them towards the people stationed there.
A “Trap” to Draw in Palestine Supporters
The admissions went further.
In an Instagram video, British-Israeli activist Jewish Jess, a member of the group, said that two Front Line Advocates participants had disguised themselves as pro-Palestinian demonstrators in order to approach people sympathetic to Palestine who were walking near the table.
She described the tactic as a “trap”.
Adi Karni, one of the former Israeli soldiers who participated in the disguise, also spoke openly about the effect of wearing the keffiyeh.
He said people listened to him more when he wore it and appeared to be Palestinian, or a “Hamas terrorist”, than when he presented himself as an Israeli soldier.
Stav Cohen, a former Israeli reserve officer and one of the organisation’s founders, also published a post indicating that Front Line Advocates had impersonated Palestinians during what he described as an “undercover mission” in New York.
Taken together, the statements indicate that the disguises were not separate from the organisation’s activities, but were deliberately used as a way to reach people who might otherwise have ignored a table openly presenting a pro-Israel message.
Confrontation With a Columbia Faculty Member
During the group’s activities, a confrontation also took place between its members and a Columbia University faculty member.
The faculty member told the Columbia Daily Spectator that she approached the table last Tuesday and asked what was happening. She was told that Israeli soldiers were present to answer her questions.
After she explained that she did not have any questions, she said group members began filming her, surrounding her and asking what she described as “provocative” questions about Hezbollah, Gaza and her background.
She said a man wearing a ski mask approached during the confrontation.
When she asked who he was, she was told he was there to “protect them”.
“The situation was alarming and I felt unsafe,” she wrote in a statement to the newspaper, requesting anonymity because she feared retaliation.
A Campaign Extending Beyond Columbia
The group’s activities were not limited to Columbia University.
It toured several protest locations across New York City, including Columbia, Washington Square Park and the City University of New York School of Law.
According to the organisation’s website, Front Line Advocates sends delegations of former Israeli soldiers and pro-Israel activists to universities and public spaces after putting participants through five weeks of training aimed at representing Israel and defending its narrative.
In a separate incident, anti-Zionist Jewish influencer David Spivak, known online as David Says Stuff, said people posing as pro-Palestinian demonstrators approached him in Washington Square Park and introduced themselves as Palestinian students from Gaza.
In a video, he said they asked whether he supported “the resistance” before showing him photographs and videos of victims of the 7 October 2023 attack.
Adi Karni: From Gaza to the Centre of the Controversy
Amid the controversy, the name of Adi Karni drew particular attention after activists and journalists recirculated videos and images they said documented his activities during his military service in Gaza.
The Hind Rajab Foundation says Karni, a former sergeant in the Israeli military’s 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, is accused of participating in the demolition and destruction of civilian and religious structures in Gaza.
The foundation said it has filed legal complaints against him, including one in the United States, and that a criminal investigation had previously been opened against him in Peru over allegations related to war crimes during the war on Gaza.
The Hind Rajab Foundation says its case is based on visual material and open-source information.
No final judicial ruling has established the crimes alleged against Karni.
The organisation said it had identified him and documented what it describes as violations committed in Gaza, adding that it had filed complaints against him in the United States and Peru and was tracking his movements across several countries.
Diab Abu Jahjah, the foundation’s director general, said its representatives confronted Karni at Columbia University after he appeared disguised as a Palestine supporter.
He said the organisation would continue pursuing him through legal channels.
From Gaza to New York: The Controversy Goes Beyond the Keffiyeh
The episode drew criticism from human rights activists and journalists, including British activist Shaheen Suleiman, who argued that Karni’s use of Palestinian clothing exposed what she described as an attempt to influence American public opinion by exploiting Palestinian identity.
Suleiman said the concern extended beyond the disguise itself to the use of a false identity to gain access to people who might have reacted differently had they known the individual’s real identity.
She also criticised attempts to reduce the Palestinian context to the events of 7 October, arguing that occupation, violence and the dispossession of Palestinians from their land and rights did not begin on that date.
The incident therefore developed from an episode of disguise on a New York street into a broader debate over political influence tactics.
Statements from members of the organisation showed that wearing the keffiyeh and pretending to support Palestine were part of a deliberate attempt to attract a particular audience.
Activists also circulated footage and images criticising Karni, focusing on the contrast between material they attributed to him from Gaza and his later appearance wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh in New York.
Others raised a more fundamental question: why would a former Israeli soldier adopt a Palestinian identity in order to reach people protesting the Israeli war on Gaza in the first place?
