Sacha Dratwa
Lieutenant Sacha Dratwa is the head of the New Media Desk at the IDF Spokesperson's Unit of the Israel Defence Forces.[1] He is referred to in some sources as Sasha Bratwa.
Contents
IDC Herzliya
Dratwa is a former communications student at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel, to which he immigrated from Belgium.
HelpUsWin
He headed the French language online monitoring campaign at the HelpUsWin.org situation room set up at the Center in support of the the Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza in 2008/09.[2]
He was interviewed by the Jerusalem Post about HelpUsWin's campaign in January 2009.[3]
- "It's very hurtful and offensive to see that the world is not conveying what is happening in Israel, that there has been eight years of firing from Gaza into Israel," he said.
- Bratwa said that people he has engaged on French blogs and talkbacks don't even know that Israeli civilians had been living under attack for almost a decade.
- "The French do not believe that Israel has a right to exist," Bratwa said. "We are trying to explain on-line that we don't enjoy wars and having civilians die. It's our responsibility to show that we want peace."[4]
Media Strategist
From May to December 2009, Dratwa worked as a social media strategist at Laurus Consulting Group. From May 2009 to June 2011, he worked at Tidal Wave Media.[5]
Asper Institute
From September 2010 to June 2011, Dratwa was a media strategist at the Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy at the IDC Herzliya.[5]
IDF Spokesperson's Unit
In March 2012, journalist Yossi Gurvitz wrote a story stating that an IDF rabbi had issued a ruling condoning rape in wartime.[6] According to Gurvitz:
- When I exposed the case of Rabbi-Colonel Qarim and how he used religion to condone rape, Dratwa was the officer who called me in a rage, told me that my query to the army “disrespects the IDF, the State of Israel and the Jewish religion,” and informed me the IDF Spokesman will no longer answer my questions. I guess they got used to receiving only questions that respect all three. I still don’t know why the IDF took upon itself to defend the Jewish religion. Mission creep?[7]
As of November 2012, Dratwa is head of the New Media Desk at the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.[5] This role was the subject of some publicity in the wake of Operation Pillar of Cloud. A number of reports noted that Dratwa's Facebook page included a picture of him uploaded the previous September, posing in blackface, with the caption "Obama-style".[8]
External resources
- Allison Hoffman, The ‘Kids’ Behind IDF’s Media, The Tablet, 20 November 2012.
- Sam Biddle, Here’s the 26-Year-Old Snowboarder Running Israel’s Social Media War, Gizmodo, 21 November 2012.
- Claudine Zapp, Israel’s social media war run by 26-year-old, The Lookout, Yahoo.com, 21 November 2012.
- Robert Mackey, Israeli Military’s Twitter Warrior Posed ‘Obama Style,’ in Blackface, The Lede, nytimes.com, 26 November 2012.
- Dana Liebelson, Did the Head of the Israeli Military's Social Media Pose in Black Face?, Mother Jones, 26 November 2012.
Contact
- Facebook Sacha Dratwa
- LinkedIn: Sacha Dratwa
- Twitter: @SachaDratwa
Notes
- ↑ , LinkedIn, accessed 22 November 2012.
- ↑ IDC Media Innovation Lab., accessed 22 November 2012.
- ↑ Jessica Freiman, IDC students work to win media war, Jerusalem Post, 4 January 2009.
- ↑ Jessica Freiman, IDC students work to win media war, Jerusalem Post, 4 January 2009.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Sacha Dratwa - About, Facebook, accessed 23 November 2012.
- ↑ Yossi Gurvitz, IDF colonel-rabbi implies: Rape is permitted in war, +972, 28 March 2012.
- ↑ Yossi Gurvitz, Misspokesman: IDF New Media officer poses 'Obama Style' - in blackface, +972, 26 November 2012.
- ↑ Israeli Army Social Media Guru Poses as Obama in Brownface, Al-Akhbar-English, 22 Novbember 2012.
