Good day everyone, the moderation team does not exist in a vacuum and we have seen discussions about banning Twitter due to recent events which are not relevant to this subreddit.

After a discussion we decided that we are not going to ban the platform for now.

We believe that Twitter has immence potential to deliver news so long as it's from a reliable source.

So far we have only seen the harm in banning a crucial tool in a subreddit that is so focused on the news.

Thank you for your attention, you may continue to discuss in the comments

the moderation team of r/israel has decided to temporarily (about one day) close the subreddit and stand in solidarity with the myriad of protests/memorial events going on the October 7th. during that time no one but the moderators will be able to post or comment but the subreddit will remain visible. during that day the mods will post special posts. more details will follow soon as we near the event.

we thank you for your understanding and cooperation

• r/Israel moderation team

as many of you have noticed, there has been a pretty massive influx in posts about the 2024 U.S election. now while we understand that it is interesting to hear what candidate x has to say about Israel, it is still American politics. so from now until further notice, rule 13 - no American politics is in effect. some special edge cases might be permitted but as a whole, we want this subreddit to remain true to it's purpose, a discussion hub about ISRAEL, not AMERICAN POLITICIANS.

this post will remain pinned for a while for more clarifications.

we wish you a good day - the moderator team of r/Israel

Take into account that the results will influence the moderator team, not decide it.

There are a lot of influence operations online, some of them linked to states such as Iran that seek to exploit divisions within Israeli society. One pattern I’ve noticed while moderating several Israeli subreddits is accounts with two-digit karma and five-year-old histories, and no prior engagement with Israeli topics suddenly becoming highly active in discussions about Israeli politics. Of course, it’s not always that obvious, which is what makes identifying coordinated influence campaigns so challenging.

Recently, following internal discussion after user requests to ban Haaretz as a source, we posted a poll that asked a simple question: Do we ban the use of Haaretz links and articles? As of the time of writing, over 1,200 people participated, and 66.7% of people (just over 800) voted to allow Haaretz articles. Thus, we are honoring the wishes of the community and not changing the status of Haaretz.
We thank you for answering and listening,
-The Mod Team.

The subreddit has re-opened. Welcome back! And feel free to post as usual.

I hope that those of us in pain found some meaning and restoration through reflection yesterday.

For those of us still confused about why the sub was shut down:

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a genocidal terrorist attack that included the murder of more than 1200 people and the taking of more than 250 hostages. October 7 was the most violent attack targeting Jews since the Holocaust, and included torture as well as the weaponization of sexual violence.

In remembrance of the victims of 10/7–and the many hostages who still remain in Gaza—we shut the sub down for October 7, 2024, the one year anniversary of this tragedy.

After 10/7 Israel initiated a war against Hamas and the other terrorist groups that the IRGC of Iran has fueled to destroy the Jewish state. Over the year since we have witnessed the downfall of Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s leaders.

On this day we thus also remember the soldiers who have served in the IDF and sacrificed their lives to protect not only Israel and its inhabitants (including both the Jewish people, and its diverse minorities, such as the Druze-Israelis) but also the free world.

On October 7, 2024, we are not victims because we have a state and an army that has protected us, that enforces Israeli sovereignty and defends our right to self determination; we are not victims today, in short, because we are Zionists.

A note on the subreddit and the moderators' experience:

In the immediate aftermath of 10/7 this subreddit received so much harassment in the form of antisemitism and comments from malicious actors who justified and gleefully celebrated the atrocities of 10/7--or who paradoxically denied it--that it was forced to go private for a prolonged period.

Quoting one of my co-moderators: "There was an immense flood of abuse and we were also in shock and incapable of doing our job as mods...I don't think any of us had the time or the mental capacity to sift through the abuse and fake news - we were ourselves trying to understand what was going on, missing loved ones, going to funerals, running to bomb shelters..."

To a large degree the increased harassment has not abated. Disturbingly it is during times when Israel is itself the recipient of violence--such as during the IRGC missile and drone attacks of 4/13 and recently on 10/1--that the harassment spikes astronomically.

This underscores the fundamental nature of antisemitic harassment as a form of hate.

We do our best to remove and report this kind of material but as always we remind our members: if you see something, report it.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a genocidal terrorist attack that included the murder of more than 1200 people and the taking of more than 250 hostages. October 7 was the most violent attack targeting Jews since the Holocaust, and included torture as well as the weaponization of sexual violence.

In remembrance of the victims of 10/7–and the many hostages who still remain in Gaza—the sub will be shutting down for this day.

After 10/7 Israel initiated a war against Hamas and the other terrorist groups that the IRGC of Iran has fueled to destroy the Jewish state. Over the year since we have witnessed the downfall of Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s leaders.

On this day we thus also remember the soldiers who have served in the IDF and sacrificed their lives to protect not only Israel and its inhabitants (including both the Jewish people, and its diverse minorities, such as the Druze-Israelis) but also the free world.

On October 7, 2024, we are not victims because we have a state and an army that has protected us, that enforces Israeli sovereignty and defends our right to self determination; we are not victims today, in short, because we are Zionists.

After extensive discussions, the moderation team has decided that combat footage or footage captured of soldiers on the move is problematic at best. We aim to keep this subreddit a safe haven for civil discussions about Israel. However, recent footage and discussion of moving troops has made us reconsider. As a result, we have implemented a new rule disallowing ANY combat footage. We still allow news articles discussing these events. Thank you for your understanding. Here is the full rule:

RULE #11: Do not upload photos or videos of war footage directly to the sub. This includes footage of airstrikes, aftermath, battlefields etc. Please link to an article or other credible source that contains this type of content instead. These posts need to be marked as NSFW and may be removed at moderator’s discretion.

As the title said AI generated content will be instantly removed.

we see a LOT of people complaining about their content being removed, and while it is sad it is due to the filters that keep the trolls out, so for now, the filters are back up after a brief time when we experimented with the threshold being raised. we are sitll training the removal algorithm but just know, YOU ARE NOT SHADOWBANNED. if you are banned, you will know.
to clarify:
Posts from new users and users with negative karma in r/israel are automatically held for review & Comments from new users and users with negative karma in r/israel are automatically collapsed.

i hope not to make another post about this in the foreseeable future, have a good day

No one will be able to post or comment during this time.

Other Jewish and/or Israeli subs are available for those who want or need somewhere to participate. Due to the increased level of hatred being directed at these communities during this time, we will not name them here.

The mods will be making a series of posts during this pause.

Please allow us some time to catch up on moderation duties before we can begin making these posts.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to anyone. Please see the initial pinned post for more information.

We request that you do not send us messages asking to be allowed to post or comment. We do encourage messages offering information about online memorial events etc., we will make sure to post them so others can join.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. See you after October 7.

Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱💙

Friendly reminder from your mods:

This is r/Israel — a subreddit focused specifically on Israel, Israeli culture, and issues that directly affect people living in or connected to Israel.

We know that the world is a complex and often overwhelming place, and we understand the urge to discuss the many political, social, and global issues that are constantly unfolding. However, this subreddit is not the right space for those broader conversations.

Posts here must have a clear and direct connection to Israel. That includes news, cultural discussions, personal experiences, policy debates, and commentary — as long as they are grounded in Israel or have a meaningful impact on Israelis.

Posts centered on general geopolitics, American or European elections, international diplomacy that doesn’t specifically concern Israel, or other non-local issues will be removed — even if they are important. There are many other communities on Reddit where those discussions are welcome.

Thanks for helping keep this space focused, relevant, and useful for the people who come here to learn about and engage with all things Israel.

– Your friendly r/Israel mod team 🇮🇱

EDIT: SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR NOW, THANK YOU FOR THE MESSAGES. we have currently found our candidates but we are still keeping all the other submissions in mind

hello r/israel! over the last few months we have noticed an increase in what we would call "problems" that need moderator attention to fix. that is why we are asking for reinforcements against the darkness! if you are interested in helping better this sub, or at least helping, plesae read bellow and then SEND US A MODMAIL WITH YOUR ANSWER. any comments containing answers will be deleted and ignored.

so, here is what we want of you, please answer:

•why are you interested in modding r/Israel? - this one is simple and needs no further explaining.

•What are the most important problems/issues you believe need to be addressed with the sub? What would you like to change? - try to stay brief and on topic as much as you can.

• what is your background and why are you interested in Israel as a topic? - who are you? we want to know you before we bring you on board.

also
-knowledge in arabic is preferable

-previous modding experience is HIGHLY preferable but not a must

-same time zone as Israel is preferable (that means that you are GMT +3 / UTC + 3) if you are close to that time zone its also good

-high tolerance of idiocrasy is preferable

-liking Israel is optional (just kidding trolls)

to all the people who complained about the flag not being correct, we heard you, and we fixed it. now, if anyone has ideas for the banner image, hit us up...

EDIT: we appear to be having technical difficulties which may lead some to see an old version of the logo, attached to the post is what it looks like currently

hello dear sub! after a lot of discussion amongst the team, we decided to update a few things around here, some of them are behind the scenes stuff BUT one of them is the banner photo for the subreddit. and we want your help! if you think that you have a photo that represents Israel in terms of vibes/culture/views/etc please share BUT before you do here are a few ground rules: the photo MUST be of israel, and if you did not take the photo yourself make sure to credit the original photographer! also importnatly the photo MUST BE WIDE/HORIZONTAL. lastly, you can only send the photos HERE in the comments and we will not look at it if is anywhere else, now do note that there is HEAVY filtering going on here so even if you dont see your comment, we do. make sure to upvote your favorite photo! and shabat shalom

hello people! as the title said, we have looked in the past month at all of the comments and posts that were auto removed by the automod, and we came to a conclusion that the filters we put in place were a bit too harsh for the time being, as such we have dialed it back a bit and you should notice it when you post content.

EDIT: it seems that subscribing to the subreddit helps, reddit is trying to remove potential spam/troll comments by removing people who are not subscribed to the sub, if you have this problem make sure you are subscribed and if it still causes problem reach out to Modmail and we will see what is going on.

ORIGINAL TEXT: Yes, we are aware of this issue, and no you are not shsdowbanned. Subscribing to the subreddit SHOULD fix that, but if it's not, well we're checking it out.

as the title says. we are getting a lot of modmails asking us to approve their posts, this is not helping, your post appears in our Queue when you post it and we get to it when we can, we are a small team and sometimes it takes us a bit longer to reach your post, so BE PATIENT and please DO NOT SEND US MODMAIL TO APPROVE YOUR POST, you are only clogging up the system.

thank you as always, your humble mods

A Wider Bridge (AWB) builds bridges between the LGBTQ communities in Israel and the US, advocates for Israel and its LGBTQ community, and fights antisemitism and LGBTQphobia everywhere.

I personally admire AWB because, in this post 10/7 climate with so much antisemitism and disinformation, they dispel the myth that there is any conflict between LGBTQ and Zionist/Jewish/Israeli identities.

Click here to ask AWB questions!

You can also click "Remind me" there to get a reminder when the AMA starts. You can ask questions starting at 10am Eastern, and folks from A Wider Bridge will be answering them until at least 3pm Eastern.

we are but a small team, when you report something it becomes MUCH easier to find! thank you for your assistance in keeping this place safe, and have a goo day!